


Brothers | A Phineas & Ferb Story

by Milletrye



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-18
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 01:12:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 86,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4159974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milletrye/pseuds/Milletrye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summer has been a fun, [usually] harmless adventure for Phineas and Ferb so far. But that suddenly changes when one invention malfunctions and they find themselves in an unfamiliar world full of dangers. The inhabitants of this place are all strangers, yet they do seem to resemble the people in Danville.<br/>In their struggle to get back home, Phineas and Ferb must face a prophecy that not only puts them into the roles of world savers, but also makes them and their new friends meet their long-suppressed pasts.<br/>As it turns out, nobody is quite what they seem to be - and while Candace has no other choice but ask Baljeet and Buford for help in finding her missing brothers, Phineas and Ferb have another problem: the prophecy states that one of them is going to die…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Just Another Ordinary Day [Intro]

There was not a single cloud in the sky that was still in a shade of golden red at this early hour. The first birds were filling the air with their music, and the morning sun arose and bathed the city of Danville in a warm light. It was a huge town in the very center of the Tri-State Area, a place home to many great minds and well-known citizens, bands like Love Händel and many more.

And even in this city’s suburbs, if one walked down Maple Drive at this time of day, they would witness another occurrence that, to a stranger, might seem like a disturbance to the idyllic morning - but everyone living near that particular house, 2308 Maple Drive, could confirm that this event belonged to the start of a new summer day like the birds and the cloudless sky.

And one person in particular.

\---

»Ferb, I know what we’re going to do today!«

The girl sat up with a groan. The high-pitched voice of her younger brother cut through the air, and with it came the sudden destruction of the wonderful dream world she had just spent several minutes, or even hours, in. She was used to it by now, of course, having heard these exact words a little less than a hundred and four times already. But still, this commonness did not decrease her frustration in any way. Instead, it was a painful reminder that she still had not achieved her goal: stopping him and her stepbrother from building the biggest, most extreme, and most fantastic inventions the world had ever seen - by showing her mother and thus, busting the boys once and for all.

»Oh, why do I even bother«, she sighed, apathetically looking at her messy orange hair in the mirror. »No matter how hard I try, no matter how great  _my_ plan is… at the end of the day, it’s all gone anyway!«

Because of some mysterious force, her brothers' inventions always vanished the very moment her mother was about to see them, no matter how impossible it was for giant buildings to disappear. And yet, the girl was not giving up. Someday, somehow, she  _would_ bust her brothers. No matter how hard it was.

She decided to allow herself a few more moments of peace and quiet before her brothers would start with their scheme, so she did her hair and put on her usual clothes: a red tank top and white skirt, fastened by a red belt, as well as red socks under white shoes.

When she was done, the girl walked over to the door of her room, putting one hand on the door handle. She closed her eyes and sighed once again, mentally preparing herself for what she knew was going to happen.

»Well, time for just another ordinary day.«

Little did she know how wrong she was.

 

 


	2. The Simplicity of Modern Art

Ferb blinked at his brother. He had heard this very sen­tence many times by now, but he was still curious as ever about what idea Phineas had come up with today.

»Remember when we built those teleporters in the be­ginning of summer?«, the red-haired boy, who was wearing his usual outfit, a t-shirt with orange and white stripes and blue shorts, continued. »You know, the ones that kinda turned Candace into Per­ry.«

Ferb nodded. That adventure was just one of many, and he remembered them all. From the rollercoaster to space travel, they had done so many things, making the summer truly unforgettable.

»Well, as you know, we never _ actually _ got to build working teleporters, so why don’t we do that today?« Phineas sounded excited already, even though they had not started working on their new project yet.

The green-haired boy shrugged. There was nothing he had to say against this plan - not that he ever really said much at all. Ferb stood up from his usual spot beneath the tall tree in the backyard to fetch his tools, but stopped when he heard a familiar voice.

»What’cha doin’?«

»Oh, hey, Isab-« Phineas quickly cut himself off when he turned around to greet the person that had just arrived.

»Got you there, huh, dinner bell?« A boy in a black t-shirt with a skull on it grinned as he approached the two brothers.

Phineas blushed a little. »Well, yeah, I’m so used to Is­abella saying that!«

»You’re missing her already, don’t ya?«, the other boy, Buford, laughed.

»Of course I do«, Phineas agreed, and Buford ex­changed an amused glance with Ferb. Even after so many days of summer, his brother was still completely oblivi­ous to Isabella’s feelings for him - unlike everyone else in the neighborhood. Even Ferb had to agree that it was quite hilarious to tease him about that, especially because Phineas did not even notice _that_ either. Just like right now.

»She’s visiting her family in Mexico for a couple of days«, the redhead continued. »I bet she misses us too!«

»And one of us in particular«, Ferb remarked, quietly enough for only Buford to hear. The self-proclaimed bul­ly snorted, nudging his friend.

»Anyway, dinner bell, what _ are _ you guys up to?«

»Remember when we built those teleporters in the be­ginning of summer?«, Phineas repeated, but Buford shook his head.

»That was before our little thumb wrestling duel, I’d say. Or after that, whatever. Either way, I haven’t been here _ that _ often back then. You really gotta fill me in on all that stuff you did without me!« He sounded more frus­trated than he most likely was - Buford tended to exag­gerate.

»That’s a plan for another day, Buford«, Phineas replied. »Because today, we’re gonna build a teleporter!«

»And?«, Buford demanded.

»And… that’s it.«

»That’s it?«

»Yeah! Well, it’s just a teleporter.«

»Are you _ serious _ ?«, the bully replied, sounding some­what angry. »All summer, you’ve built really big and amazing things; time machines and rockets and all that great stuff. And now you’re telling me that all you’re gonna do today is build a little teleporter?«

Phineas shrugged. »Just building tall and extreme things all the time _ is _ kinda lame, don’t you think?«

Again, Buford shook his head. »Nah, dinner bell. You know what’s lame? A small and so not extreme tele­porter!«

»The simplicity of modern art should not be underesti­mated«, Ferb added calmly, paying no attention to Bu­ford’s tone.

»Well, _ I _ think it’s lame«, the bully repeated. »I’m gonna leave, and I’m gonna come back in some hours. Maybe you’ll be able to convince me of the not-so-lame­ness of this thing then.«

And with that, Buford turned around and left the back­yard with a slam of its small gate.

When he was gone, Phineas shrugged, not letting him­self get brought down by his friend.

»I like the teleporter«, he said, looking back to Ferb. »Now let’s actually build it, huh?«

\---

It turned out that Buford had actually been right - part­ly, anyway. After all, they finished building the tele­porter in less than an hour. One reason for that was indeed that it was small and not too fancy, but another was that they simply reused their old blueprints of the first tele­porter they had built.

So here they were, standing in front of the machine that looked exactly like its first version - only that this time, they had built only one, and for a simple reason: with two machines, one could only teleport to the location of the other device. But now, they just had to enter coordinates and the portal would bring them there.

»Okay, Ferb, where do you want to go?«, Phineas asked, his voice showing how excited he was to finally try the machine out.

Ferb just blinked. He had no destination in mind, but he knew Phineas would come up with one any second now.

»Oh, I know! Why don’t we visit our grandparents in London?«, the redhead asked, already figuring out the co­ordinates of the location with the machine's built-in com­puter. Ferb did not have any chance to reply even if he had wanted to, because seconds later, the portal was al­ready opening with a spiral of all kinds of colors, not re­vealing anything of the set destination.

Phineas was even more excited now. »Shall we?«, he smiled at his brother, who just nodded in agreement.

Right next to each other, and at the same time, they en­tered the portal.

A bright flash of light blinded the boys as a crackling noise was heard. They were tossed around as if caught in a heavy storm and, eventually, forcefully pulled into one direction.

This only took moments too short for the brothers to actually be aware of the incident. They did not feel any consequences but dizziness - and ruggedly crashing onto grassy ground. Luckily, they had gotten away with no in­juries at all, and after shaking off the dizzy feeling, they stood up and looked around.

They had landed on a glade amid a thick and seem­ingly endless forest with no signs of civilization in sight. The sky was as blue as it had been in Danville when they had finished the teleporter, but the place itself was com­pletely unfamiliar.

»I have the feeling this isn’t London«, Phineas stated, looking at his brother - who, actually coming from Eng­land, knew that city far better than him.

Ferb nodded. He had no idea where they had ended up either, so he approached the trees to examine them.

His breath caught as he realized what tree the leaves he had found belonged to.

_Aren't those...? It can't be. Not here. Unless -_

Footsteps.

Ones that were approaching the brothers quickly.

Ferb only had enough time to pull out his pocket knife for possible self-defense when a black canine beast twice the size of a wolf jumped out of the bushes and ran right over to Phineas, who, without any kind of gadget with him, stood no chance against the creature.

The green-haired boy reacted quickly and dashed over to his brother, his knife equipped and ready to strike. »Ferb!«, he heard Phineas exclaim, but he was complete­ly focused on the beast at this point. It was about to at­tack his brother with its sharp claws, but Ferb reached it just in time. He stabbed it with his knife, thus causing it to screech in pain. Now the greenhead had the beast’s complete attention and was able to direct it away from Phineas.

Ferb had no intentions of killing this creature - yet he knew he could not be too sure of the other way around. The beast furiously attacked him, but luckily he was able to dodge and avoid its claws most of the time. Not al­ways, though, for it eventually managed to cause him to drop his knife - and now he was completely defenseless as well.

Completely? Not quite.

 _»That was before our little thumb wrestling duel, I’d say.«_ Buford's voice echoed inside his head - and with it, Ferb remembered the moment after that very duel, the moment he had knocked Buford unconscious by pinching just the right nerve.

_ Now this beast just has to have this very nerve as well... _

»Ferb, there are more!« Phineas’ voice interrupted his struggle to locate the nerve of the wolf, and now he heard, and saw, two more of these beasts approaching them at an immense speed. He knew he could not defeat all three of them, but one at the very least… so as the creature launched another clawed attack, he pushed himself forward, grabbed the beast’s throat - and pinched it.

The wolf fell down with a thud, just as the sharp hiss of a flying arrow cut through the air. After that, another thud as the second creature fell to the ground. Just mo­ments later, the event repeated, with the third and final beast getting pierced by an arrow.

Ferb believed he heard voices, and from the corner of his eye, he saw someone, a human this time, knocking Phineas unconscious with a hit on the head.

Ferb opened his mouth to scream his brother’s name, but he too felt a sudden pain on the back of his head.

And then everything went black.

 


	3. Implausibilities

When Phineas regained consciousness at last, every­thing was silent and dark. Of course, his eyes still being closed could be blamed for the latter - and curious as the redhead was, he opened them.

He was indoors, as he had already assumed from the lack of sounds. The walls of this moderately sized place revealed their unstructured and rough patterns thanks to a handful of torches casting many little shadows wherever a ridge was, for there was no light coming from above or anywhere but the torches at all. The walls were of brown and gray color, too, and Phineas soon realized that he was inside a cave. Man-made or natural, he couldn’t tell. In a semicircle in front of him stood seven chairs - and the boy let out a surprised gasp when he noticed that three of them were not empty.

The three people would have turned their heads to him at this sound - if they had not already been staring at him the entire time, that is.

»Look who’s finally woken up«, one of them, a teenage boy at the age of about sixteen, with messy blond hair and a sleeveless black t-shirt, exclaimed excitedly.

The one on the chair next to him, a dark-skinned boy of the same age, with long braided dark brown hair and a gray short-sleeved jacket over a black shirt, didn’t sound as happy. »Yeah, it’s about time. I was starting to get bored with them just being unconscious like that.«

' _Them_ '? Of course! Phineas looked around once more, and to his right, he spotted Ferb: tied to a chair, still not awake. It was only then that the redhead noticed how he was just as tied up as his brother.

»What’s that for?«, he decided to speak up, looking questioningly to the two teens that, he thought, bore a strange resemblance to Jeremy and Coltrane, two of his sister’s friends from back home. Phineas was not too worried though: after all, these people did not seem like they wanted to harm him - and they had saved him and Ferb from those wolf beasts, he remembered.

»Just so you won’t fall off your chairs«, the fairly amused blond boy replied, but he was quickly interrupted by the third person Phineas had spotted earlier. He had not paid much attention to this boy because he was sitting on the left side of the semicircle, unlike the other two on the opposite side of it.

Although he was younger than the two teens by four years or so, the remaining boy had the most serious and wary expression of their group. His gray-sleeved arms were crossed in front of the black vest he was wearing, and he had straight black hair at a little less than shoulder length.

»We have tied you up because we do not trust you«, the boy openly declared. His dark skin and foreign accent immediately reminded Phineas of his friend Baljeet, even though the boy coldly glaring at the brothers now was much taller, more serious, and had a much deeper voice than their Indian friend.

» _ You _ don’t trust them«, the blond boy emphasized.

»We never really agreed on tying them up, did we?«, his teenage friend added.

The boy on the left sighed. »And you two are not much of a help here.«

The blond boy turned to Phineas, grinning. »That’s what he’s telling us every day.«

This made the redhead smile. By now, he highly doubt­ed the trio actually meant harm, and he was glad that two of them didn’t seem to take the situation very seriously either.

The one that did, though, raised his voice again.

»Anyway«, he said, completely ignoring the other’s re­mark and turning to Phineas, »Let us get back to the actu­ally important matters.« There was a warning tone in his voice, and the other boys decided to be quiet for once. »Who are you, what do you want, and how did you ap­pear out of nowhere in the middle of a forest?«

»Well«, Phineas started, hardly intimidated by his harsh tone. »I’m Phineas, and this is my brother Ferb. We’re from a place called Danville and -«

»Ha! I told you they’re the ones!«, the blond boy ex­claimed, grinning at his friend next to him.

»The ones?«, Phineas repeated, confused. »Were you expecting us?«

»Duh«, the long-haired boy replied. »You’re the broth­ers from the prophecy. Supposed to be saving the world from the darklings.«

»Saving the world?«, Phineas repeated again, looking at the more serious boy. Surely he’d tell him now that his friend was kidding.

»I hate to admit it, but he is right«, the boy sighed. »Two brothers from another world, which you are by the looks of it, defeating those canine beasts - the darklings - and their leader… not that you would stand much of a chance against that man.«

»Come on, Bal, we all saw him -«, the blond boy nod­ded at the still unconscious Ferb, »- defeat a darkling with his bare hands! Don’t say they can’t put up with the rest of them!«

»Well, I am«, the boy on the left, Bal, countered. »Two boys against a pack of monsters and a dark sorcerer? They stand no chance.«

Just when the blond boy opened his mouth for a re­sponse, he was cut off by the sound of approaching foot­steps. It was hard to tell, but Phineas estimated about three or four people - most likely four, he realized, matching the number of still empty seats in the room.

»Looks like our reinforcements have arrived«, the long-haired boy stated with a look at Ferb. »This is going to be interesting.«

Phineas didn’t have much time to wonder what Ferb in particular had to do with that. Only seconds later, the first person entered the room from behind the tied-up broth­ers. With fast steps, a small and chubby boy hurried to a chair right between Bal and Phineas. He wore a black t-shirt, dark khaki shorts, and had a lot of freckles - all traits that reminded Phineas of another friend he, and es­pecially Baljeet, had: Buford. Like the bully, this boy had dark brown hair, but the curls made him different from the person Phineas knew. Buford also had one upward tooth that was even visible with a closed mouth - the boy now very agitatedly staring at the brothers had an over­bite instead.

»Are you from the prophecy?«, he asked Phineas, with an honest grin that reminded the redhead of himself.

»That’s a little straightforward, don’t you think?«, a very calm voice replied. Another boy at Phineas’ age en­tered the room and took his time to get to the seat next to the long-haired boy, a spot almost directly facing Phineas and Ferb. Why the boy was walking so slowly was easy to see: he was slouching, using a cane as assistance, and his very pale blue eyes were closely surrounded by the scars of several long-healed wounds. The short, reddish hair only added to Phineas’ thoughts about which of his friends this boy was resembling: Irving, the glasses-wearing self-proclaimed biggest fan of the brothers and their adventures. And by the looks of it, the boy Phineas was watching now was not half as hyperactive as the one he knew - and blind.

»Sorry, Ivan«, the chubby one answered him. And, af­ter a pause, »...but _ are _ they?«

»If Jared and Colin told us the truth, yeah.«

Phineas gasped at the sound of this voice and turned his head.

»Canda-« Of course, he quickly cut himself off. The person strolling into the room and taking the seat on Bal’s other side wasn’t his sister - just a girl who looked and sounded a whole lot like her. Her orange hair was tied into a ponytail, and like the others, she mostly wore black: her sleeveless shirt, skirt and boots all were of that darkest of colors. Not having glanced at the brothers for even a second yet, she flinched and immediately turned her head when Phineas spoke up. When she saw him, her eyes widened in surprise and even shock, but she quickly shook her head as if trying to get rid of an image inside her mind. Then she looked back in the redhead’s direc­tion, but past him - at the final person entering the room.

Whatever remark anyone in the room had been about to make regarding the little incident that had just happened, it was quickly forgotten when everyone went silent as the last person appeared, aiming straight for the remaining empty seat: the one directly facing Phineas and Ferb.

When even Bal’s two companions, Jared and Colin, Phineas assumed, became quiet like that, the redhead knew that the person behind him must be quite intimidat­ing - or even some kind of authority figure. They nodded at this person, and Bal even slightly bowed his head, re­inforcing Phineas’ assumption. But still, the boy was not exactly scared, just very curious.

But when a boy with dark green hair came into Phineas’ view, he could hardly believe his eyes.

He was as tall as Ferb, and all the proportions fit: square nose, rectangular head, eyes of different size. But what Phineas called his brother’s very own type of si­lence, the calm and collected one, could hardly be ap­plied to this boy. It was easy to read his expression, cu­riosity most of all, and the smile on his face was more of a smirk. His hair was of a darker shade than Ferb’s, styled upwards, and with a jacket of just about the same color, he was easily the most colorful person in the room if one excluded the brothers. Under the jacket he wore a black t-shirt, and his gray pants started at a normal height - not almost directly under the armpits like Ferb’s. Leaning back on his chair, the boy folded his arms behind his head that was also bearing a scar just above his left eye. Everybody was looking at him, and he in turn was look­ing at Ferb.

»So«, the boy spoke up. While Ferb hardly ever re­vealed his emotions even in speech, this one did not seem to bother _ not _ revealing them. He made it clear that he was in a superior position, yet he also openly showed his curiosity. »You’re the ones from the prophe­cy.«

»Pretty much, yeah.« Phineas found it hard to actually act inferior towards this boy, especially because he was so similar to his brother - in appearance, at least. Luckily for him, the other one didn’t seem to mind.

»Well then - I doubt the three guys you’ve had the pleasure of meeting told you much about anything… or did they?«

Bal considered it fitting to reply and defend himself. »We thought we should wait until everyone is here«, he explained - and was immediately contradicted by the blond boy, Jared.

»He was the one thinking that, _ we _ were useful!«

The Ferb-like boy raised an eyebrow.

The girl looking like Candace sighed.

»Guys, calm down. This is important.« With a glance to the green-haired boy next to her, she continued, »Don’t you think we should, like, introduce ourselves?« That sounded more like a reminder than like an unsure ques­tion. »You’ve heard it, Bal didn’t tell them anything.«

»Do not blame me, I -« But Bal cut himself off, know­ing that arguing about such a matter was useless.

»Right«, the green-haired boy agreed, this time sound­ing like he would not tolerate any more interruptions. He had changed his position, now he was simply sitting straight with his hands on his thighs. As he was introduc­ing people, he nodded at the respective person.

»That’s my sister, Can«, he began, then looked to his right. She still avoided looking directly at Phineas. »I suppose you already know Bal here. And next to him’s Bue…«, the little boy smiled again and waved, »...and over there on my left is his mentor of sorts, Ivan. He’s also our healer.« The blind one bowed his head. Colin and Jared were also introduced - now everyone but the speaking boy himself had been. »You can call me Fern«, he concluded. »I’m the leader of this place.«

Phineas had assumed just as much. »Of what exactly?«, he asked Fern. That still had not been solved.

»Ah, right. Did the others already tell you about the darklings?«

»He _ fought _ them«, Colin pointed out, but Fern ignored that remark.

Phineas just nodded.

»Well, there you go. We’re a resistance against them and their leader, the Duke.«

Ivan, too, had something to say. In his calm and collected voice, he explained, »We have not actually been fighting him and his beasts, I might add. They are very hard to defeat, especially the Duke, of course.«

»Wait a second«, Phineas put in as he saw most of the others nodding at Ivan’s statement. He also remembered Bal’s similar words from earlier. »If they’re that difficult to beat, then why do you think Ferb and I can do that? We’re a little young for that, don’t you think?« The red­head was very well aware of the irony in his last words: normally, when someone asked him that question, he’d proudly answer _ Yes. Yes, I am. _ \- but now, he wasn’t so sure. 

Jared shrugged. »Ferb did kill that darkling with his bare hands.«

And even Bal agreed, »And you somehow came from another world and appeared right in the middle of a for­est.«

»That was an accident!«, Phineas exclaimed, frustrated. »Look, I know we’ve built that teleporter, and I know Ferb and I achieve the impossible every single day by building big and amazing stuff - but this is different! We're creating our inventions for fun, nothing else. This, this is dangerous and deadly and… and _ serious _ , guys.«

Bal just raised an eyebrow at that. »Of course it is all of that, what did you expect? The Duke has killed hundreds of people. This resistance here, we are the last ones left, and we sure are not many.«

»Cut it, Bal«, Can sharply interrupted him.

»A little bluntly put, but he’s right«, Fern replied bitter­ly, then looked at Phineas again. »Go on.«

»Yeah, well«, the redhead was still unsure, even more now after Bal’s harsh words. »Really, this is unlike any­thing we’ve ever done, in a bad way, and… I’d really like to help you, but I don’t know how! We’ve got no fighting experience or anything that could help us here, and you can't make us fight in the first place. Not me, and not Ferb. We aren't going to battle or even kill anyone.« He sighed. »I’m sorry, but -«

A more than merely familiar voice interrupted him. Coming from somewhere on his right, with a distinctive British accent.

»We will help you.«

 


	4. We Have All Been There

_»Ferb?«_

Phineas immediately turned to his right. There was his brother, completely awake, and apparently not at all thrown off by any of his surroundings. No, the determi­nation in his voice and eyes, directly facing Fern, made it seem like he hadn’t been unconscious at all, but rather like he had been observing the entire situation from the beginning.

Ferb only gave the redhead a glance Phineas would have missed if he had blinked: his brother let him know that he had heard him in spite of still remaining focused on Fern. Ferb made no other move or sound, waiting for his look-alike, or anyone else, to reply.

This person turned out to be Bal.

»How come  _you_  want to help us? Your brother had some pretty good points.«

Phineas watched his brother, curious about his answer. As much as he wanted to help those people, it was far too dangerous, not to mention that neither his friends nor his family had any clue about their whereabouts. Regarding Ferb’s words, though, he was just as curious as he was surprised - after all, his brother was known to hardly ever make bad choices. So what reasons would he have to join this resistance, knowing well enough how dangerous this was going to be?

Ferb shook his tied-up hands. To Jared, sitting next to him, the message was clear, and after exchanging a quick look with Fern, he got up and cut through the rope re­straining the green-haired boy. While Jared went on to release Phineas as well - how glad he was to move his hands again! -, Ferb took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and passed it over to Bal, who, both cautious and confused, stretched it out on the ground before him. After all, the sheet was quite big, and this way he could also make sure the others were able to see its contents as well.

Unfolded, the piece of paper was as long as Ferb’s out­stretched arm and as wide as his legs were long - the greenhead’s map folding skills were unsurpassed, as Phineas had found out many times before. White lines, text, and numbers covered the otherwise blue sheet, thus identifying what it was.

»That’s the blueprint for our teleporter!«, Phineas real­ized. He was just as bewildered as the other people in the room who had never seen such a paper before, so it was completely holding their attention at this point.

Colin shrugged and leaned back into his seat again, mak­ing it obvious that he did not care about the blueprint in any way. »So what?«

»Yeah«, Jared nodded. »How is that a reason for want­ing to help us? You’re not gonna find a thing like that  _anywhere_  in this place!«

»Not even the parts?« The last hope Phineas had had about having an excuse not to engage in deadly fighting was gone in an instant.

Fern shook his head. »Not that I’d know, no. Although…«

»Although what?«, Phineas probed him.

But the resistance’s leader shook his head. »My only guess is that the Duke would be able to create this… thing with his magics - or the parts, anyway. But, as you’ve already said, traveling to him isn’t an option.« His voice had a challenging tone that bugged Phineas.  _He knows I don’t have a choice. And Ferb does, too._

»So no matter whether I want to do this deadly stuff or not, we will have to find that guy?«, Phineas sighed, dedi­cating this question to his brother rather than to the re­sistance.

Ferb nodded, but the redhead was at least a little re­lieved when he read his expression: _Sorry. I know you don’t want to do this._

»That means they’ll help us, right?«, the chubby boy called Bue asked nobody in particular.

Phineas took a deep breath, knowing well enough that all he had to do was find the positive aspects of the situa­tion. After all, he had made it through so much already! And although flying around the world in a single day or exploring the galaxy were not nearly as intense as what he suspected was going to happen today, the redhead managed to face the circle of people with his hopeful, contagious smile, sounding as optimistic as the situation allowed.

»Yes. Yes, we will.«

Bue smiled widely at that, Jared and Colin both grinned as well, and even in Bal’s eyes Phineas believed to spot a little spark of hope. Can looked like Phineas felt: very conflicted about what to think, but trying to make the best out of the situation.  _Like Candace._  And Fern thanked the brothers, sounding like he actually meant it and with no superior ring to it, before turning to the remaining person in the room.

»Ivan, you should tell them the full prophecy now. They deserve to know.«

The blind boy nodded, slightly amused when sensing how Bal was merely waiting for being allowed to leave now that things were settled. Phineas noticed that the In­dian boy, or the closest to that in this strange place, was sitting on the edge of his seat already, most likely want­ing to get away from the two brothers as fast as possi­ble.  _Someone here doesn’t like strangers. And we haven’t even done anything to make him hate us!_

»If you think this doesn’t concern you, you’re wrong«, Ivan remarked, sounding not at all angry with the boy who now forced himself to sit back, unhappy with his situ­ation, but not wanting to get into trouble.

Still, that did not stop him from wondering, »It is Phineas and Ferb who are supposed to defeat the Duke, not me. So why do I have to stay?«

»Because you are in the prophecy as well.«

That did surprise Bal. »I am?« He did not sound too happy about that.

Can, too, turned to Ivan now. »Maybe you should tell  _all_  of us about the prophecy, how about that?«

»You don’t know about it either?«, Phineas wondered. If Ivan was the only one knowing about it, then why was everyone else believing that he and Ferb would save them?  _Maybe they’re as clueless as we are… maybe we aren’t even supposed to be a part of this!_

Colin did not seem to mind that, just like he had not been interested in the blueprint. »All Ivan’s told us is the part with two brothers from another world saving us from the Duke, and that’s all I need to know.«

»But now that we’re all here, I’d like to hear the rest as well!«, Jared declared. »Come on, Ivan, I’m all ears!«

»Very well«, the blind boy agreed. »But please, don’t interrupt me. Keep all of your reactions and opinions to yourselves until I have finished. There is no need to jump to conclusions.«

Everyone nodded until Can realized that Ivan was not going to see that. »...go ahead.«

And thus, Ivan recited the prophecy only he knew.

 

_»Country ruled by envious eyes,_

_Children forced to deadly strife_

_Against a foe so wild and dark:_

_Creatures given blackened hearts.«_

 

This already gave Phineas chills. Not that he had not been aware of the contents of this passage, but poetry made it sound all the more terrible. The others seemed to be thinking the same: these words were nothing new, but horrible reality.

 

_»When hope is lost and peril nigh,_

_Two warring brothers will unite_

_Two worlds apart since decades past,_

_Bringing peace to both at last.«_

 

So that was the part everyone was talking about. And Phineas, though unwillingly, had to agree: this sounded a whole lot like him and Ferb. Even though he could not see in what way they were ‘warring’. All eyes were on them now, he noticed.

 

_»As green as grass, as red as blood,_

_With intentions bad or good,_

_Six children on a journey set –_

_Eleven when their pasts have met.«_

 

The redhead spotted Bal glancing around. ‘Six chil­dren’, that meant the brothers - and most likely him as well. Now he was probably trying to figure out which of the others he would most like to accompany them on this journey.

 

_»The foe is gone, one brother slain...«_

 

Phineas froze and held back a scream when it dawned on him what this passage meant. He took no time to ob­serve the others’ reactions - he was too busy trying to concentrate on the remaining lines, yet actually paid little attention to them either.  _One of us is going to die._  That was the only thing on his mind right now.

 

_»...The other one his fate will claim._

_For only trust can be the key_

_For all people to be free.«_

 

Ivan ended his recitation, and for several seconds, there was silence.

And Phineas was the one breaking it.

»You can’t make us do that!«, he exclaimed, incredibly frustrated he had actually agreed to this journey, and panick­ing now that he was allowed to show his reaction. »I… I don’t care if the Duke’s the only one who can help us back home, I’m not gonna  _die_!« It was only a term of good manners that he did not get up and run away, but the boy was close to doing just that.

Ferb noticed his brother’s distress - Phineas knew that he, too, was shocked by this turn of events and that yet, he was much better at hiding it. When Ferb grabbed his brother’s hand to calm him down, the redhead could not help but think that the unusually tight grasp was meant to comfort Ferb himself as well. There was worry in his eyes, and Phineas could not tell whether Ferb was more afraid of himself or his brother dying.

Phineas was not so sure about his own feelings either.

»Phineas.« Ivan’s unchanging calm voice caught the redhead’s attention and, for some reason, made him feel a little more relaxed.

The boy just blinked at Ivan, but soon enough remem­bered his blindness again. »...huh?«

»I need to talk to you.« Resting his eyes on Ferb, he continued, »Alone.«

Fern quickly understood. »Phineas, I know you’re not too… happy about how things are turning out, but your brother’s right. You don’t have much of a choice. So while you go with Ivan, Ferb will stay here with us and discuss all other important matters - such as who is going to join the two of you.«

Ferb nodded and seemed completely alright with that, and when Phineas got up from his chair and was about to follow Ivan who was already leaving the room, he start­ed feeling uneasy and, especially, alone. But Ferb was al­ready preoccupied with listening to Fern and Can’s tacti­cal discussions, and the redhead couldn’t help but feel another thing: guilt.  _If Ferb can keep it together, why can't I?_  He sighed and turned away.

»It’s hard, I know«, Ivan’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

»...huh?«

»Getting used to such a different situation.« The blind boy was walking in front of him, slowly, his cane guiding him through the tunnel network they now appeared to be in. These paths were smaller in diameter than the room they had just left, but otherwise fairly similar, with torch­es lighting the way and several other tunnels leading deeper into, or out of, the entire system. In some of these tunnels, Phineas heard voices, but they were too far away for him to understand the words even as he tried.

There was a sudden sadness in Ivan's voice. »We have all been there.«

And then all his thoughts left Phineas’ mind.

»Ivan, I… I don’t want to do this! I don’t want to fight,  _actually_  fight, and I don’t even know where I am! It’s such a long way from home and what if I don’t even get to see my friends again? Or Mom and Dad and Can­dace? They’ll have no clue what happened and I don’t wanna die and…«

»We have all been there«, the blind boy repeated, still leading the way. »The Duke has made us flee from our homes; for all we know, all of our families and friends not in this resistance are dead, and any of us patrolling the forest are as afraid of losing their lives as you are, not to mention those that will join you on your journey. All of your fears are those that unite our resistance, Phineas. They are completely understandable.«

That was actually worse than what Phineas had thought. »I’m sorry«, he began. »...for everything that’s happened to you. All of you.«

Ivan suddenly stopped walking, and the redhead almost bumped into him. »What’s past is past«, he merely said before turning around to face the boy just as tall as him­self. Phineas couldn’t help but examine the scars around Ivan’s eyes now that he was this close to them. They were old, the wounds having healed years ago, but the scars were still there, just like the whiteness in his eyes. »All you must do is learn to live with it.«

»What happened to your eyes?«, Phineas blurted out, already regretting this rude question.

But Ivan did not mind. »Everyone asks that one day, don’t worry.

»It’s not much of a great tale, actually. Sorry if you’ve expected something more dramatic! But yes, I was noth­ing but a simple boy, tending to my village’s horses as well as the herbs I have always been so interested in. We have heard of the Duke’s attacks on other towns, of course, but we were still incredibly optimistic on the mat­ter of him actually coming to our home. One day, howev­er, he did attack us, and the horses I was feeding that day panicked, and I was completely overwhelmed, to say the least.« With a little bit of imagination, Phineas was able to identify horseshoe-like shapes in Ivan’s scars.

The blind boy smiled slightly. »When the resistance found me - Jared and Colin, actually -, I was still wide awake - and had to boss them around quite a bit to make sure my wounds were tended to properly.« And now, he even let out a short laugh, remembering that moment.

»See, Phineas, I cannot change what has happened to me, or to anyone here. But I can still do my best not to let it bring me down today - or in the future. I can sense that that’s the way you’re looking at life, too - so don’t let anything bring you down, not even the prophecy.«

Despite being incredibly moved by Ivan’s words, Phineas found it hard to convince himself of the last part. »But -«

»There are different ways to look at a prophecy, Phineas. Even though it is me who received these very words the moment I went blind, in an epiphany, you might say… I can’t tell you its outcome even if I wanted to - because I don’t know what’s going to happen. Only that things, or people, aren’t always what they seem to be.«

That was the first actually uplifting thing Phineas had heard from anyone today. »So it’s possible that Ferb and I will both make it back home?« The thought of that not going to be the case still horrified him.

»Nothing’s impossible if you believe you can do it - or can’t, in this case.«

»Fair enough«, the redhead nodded, but he was certain that Ivan was able to sense how comforting his speech had actually been. Phineas couldn’t find the right words to express it, but still: for now, he was at least somewhat relaxed again. He smiled, too, for these last words re­minded him of the many similar bits of advice he had been giving his friends over the summer.

»Wise words, aren’t they?«, Ivan smiled, indeed aware of their effect on the other boy. »My mother taught me - and she, in turn, learned them from a stranger who, now that I think about it, was very much like you.«

That caught Phineas’ attention. »What do you mean?«

»Well«, Ivan replied. »When I was no older than two years old, a visitor came to our village. He only stayed for a day, yet left such a big impact on my mother and other villagers that they often told me about him. He was very kind-hearted and optimistic, and he impressed them all with little gadgets he had built. Most notable, however, is that he told them about coming from a strange place very similar to our country in several ways - by using something he referred to as a ‘teleporter’.«

The similarities to Phineas were obvious enough for the redhead to notice, and he couldn’t help but wonder, »...what did he look like?«

»All of this is only what my mother told me«, Ivan re­minded him, but continued anyway. »She always de­scribed him as rather small for his age, with bright red hair and a very unnaturally triangular head -«

»And his name?«, Phineas interrupted him. If this man was who he thought he was…

The blind boy thought about that for a moment, notic­ing Phineas’ unusual interest in the topic. After all, he had no idea what Phineas looked like: just like the man he had just described. »Josh, if I recall correctly. The last name was something beginning with F, although… no, I don’t remember what it was, my apologies.«

»Flynn?« By now, Phineas was hardly able to contain himself.

»Yes, that… sounds about right, indeed.«

»Where is he now?« Ivan didn’t know it, but he had just confirmed to Phineas where his father, his  _actual_  fa­ther, had disappeared to so many years ago. Not that the redhead had ever really cared, though: after all, his father had vanished when he had been two years old, he didn’t remember him at all, and with Lawrence, Ferb's father, they had found a perfect replacement for whoever this man actually was. Until now, Phineas had not even known his name, but now that he had actual traces of him, the whole prospect of one day meeting his biological father suddenly turned incredibly exciting.

»This is actually both good news and bad news for you«, Ivan told him. »My mother said that when he van­ished in the evening, the last thing they found were foot­steps - his and those of several darklings. Which doesn’t mean he is dead«, he quickly added. »I doubt the Duke would kill someone this extraordinary… which is good, of course, but I really cannot tell you what has happened to Josh since.«

Phineas nodded, but also could not help sighing. No matter what happened, everything seemed to lead him into the direction of the Duke. And with every new reve­lation, he found it harder to resist his fate.

 


	5. The Trail We Blaze

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the complete reading experience, listen to [this](https://clyp.it/0g3hzwdu) as soon as the song starts. The song itself is "The Trail We Blaze" from The Road To El Dorado.

Not much more than half an hour later, Ferb was look­ing at the first natural light he had seen since the mem­bers of the resistance had knocked him unconscious earli­er. Dimmed by shapes he was not able to identify against the light from behind them, but still: any open space was welcome to him. The greenhead was standing at the very end of one of the tunnels, leading out of the cave system. With him were the other people he had met: Fern, Can, Bal, Jared, and Colin. They were all waiting for Phineas now - and for Bue, who had gone off to fetch him.

Soon enough, the group heard approaching footsteps, and Bue appeared from the tunnel leading deeper into the resistance, closely followed by Phineas - who stopped and stared at Ferb as soon as he was near enough. But Ferb realized he was not looking at him: rather, his brother’s surprised and even quite amazed eyes were resting on the sheath the greenhead was carrying on his back.

»Is that a _ sword _ ?« Phineas could hardly believe his eyes. Ferb was not able to tell whether his brother ap­proved of it or not, but at first glance, Phineas was as fas­cinated as he always was when he was shown some new device.

Can, now carrying a staff as well as a backpack, did not sound as if that was unusual at all. »We asked him if he was good with weapons, and that’s what he picked.« She shot a glance at her own brother, who was transporting his sword the same way Ferb did. Fern did approve of the similarity, Ferb had already noticed.

But Phineas, by now, was even more confused than be­fore. »Since when do you know how to use a sword?«, he asked his brother, who only replied with a shrug.

»King Arthur.«

»Fair enough«, his brother grinned, satisfied. They both knew how much Ferb loved that tale.

»Anyway«, Fern interrupted their dialogue. »We should leave as soon as possible. If we wait any longer, we’ll only be reaching the Duke’s place at sundown, which would force us to spend the night way too close to the dark­ling lair.«

»And you really do not want that«, Bal, wielding the same bow he had used to save the brothers earlier, agreed.

Fern nodded. »Best case scenario is we manage to de­feat him before _ all _ the darklings become active.«

»You’re coming with us?«, Phineas then asked him, re­minding Ferb that his brother had no idea about what had been decided when he had talked to Ivan.

»Him, me, and those two«, Can explained, nodding at Bal - and Bue.

Now, Phineas looked as surprised as Ferb had felt when that had been announced. Much like him, the red­head had probably expected Jared or Colin to join them - but Bue? The small boy was not even carrying any kind of weapon at all, only a shoulder bag, and he really did not seem like he would be any good in a fight.

»Someone has to be in charge while our two leaders are gone«, Colin shrugged.

Jared, next to him, had his usual grin on his face. »And that’s us!«

»And Ivan.«

»Way to ruin the moment, Bal.« Colin rolled his eyes.

The archer ignored him and turned to Phineas instead. »Ivan cannot join us for obvious reasons, but we do need a healer - and as his apprentice, Bue is the only option.«

Ferb knew that Bal was not at all happy with the deci­sion. In fact, it sounded like he blamed the brothers for anything that was about to happen, but that was not sur­prising: if Bal and Bue’s relationship was as strong as that between Baljeet and Buford, then they would not let _ anything _ bad happen to one another.

Bue, on the other hand, swelled with excitement. »I’ll be useful, you’ll see!«, he exclaimed to Bal.

The archer nodded absentmindedly, eager to change the topic. »You have all heard Fern. We should go.«

Fern nodded and took a step toward the exit. »Right. Let’s go, everyone.«

»Make sure to kill some darklings for us«, Jared shout­ed after them as they left, but Ferb was not sure whether that was a serious or joking remark.

He took his place next to Phineas on their way out and gave his brother a comforting smile. The redhead had no weapon with him, he noticed - that probably made him feel even more useless than he already was. Even without fighting skills, he could still have used _ some _ kind of weapon… the greenhead fiddled in his pockets and quickly found the still a little bloody pocket knife he had used to wound the darkling. This gadget was better than nothing, so he handed it to his brother.

»You’ve kept that?«, Phineas asked. »I thought you lost it in the battle!« But as his brother shook his head, the redhead grasped the multi-functional machine tightly, and Ferb could tell how comforting it was for him to be able to defend himself at least a little bit.

He looked at the object for another moment. The other people, especially Bal, all thought he had killed the dark­ling with his bare hands - but that was not the truth at all: he alone knew that the beast was all but dead, only un­conscious, not to mention that he did have had this knife with him for the first several moments. There was no rea­son to tell them, however - if that made them respect him, then this truth could wait.

The small group had left the cave system by now, after pushing through the tall fern plants that had been dim­ming the light earlier. When he turned around, Ferb saw a huge mountain - the equivalent of Danville Mountain, most likely. Inside that place, the resistance had its hide­out, the entrance hidden behind the fern. There was noth­ing suspicious about some giant plants, he thought.

Ahead of them was nothing but the forest. Ferb watched his brother closely, trying to figure out whether he would also notice what plants these woods were made of… but Phineas was as oblivious to that as he was to most things. At least he seemed to enjoy the walk: his usual smile had found its way back onto his face. Ferb was left to wonder what things Ivan had told him, but he was not going to ask. Phineas would tell him if it con­cerned him, the greenhead knew. Still, he was glad that his brother was back to his cheerful self again.

The forest was a wild one, with nothing but some scat­tered trails the resistance seemed to have left over the years to walk on. The birds were singing just like in Danville, but in a much higher number, and ground-based wildlife left the bushes rustling here and there. Ferb noticed Bal flinching a couple of times - the boy was the last in the line they had formed, keeping his bow and one arrow ready in the case of sudden danger. He was highly alert, Ferb realized… and could not help but think that he and Phineas were the last people Bal wanted to protect.

In front of the brothers was Bue, with his eyes wide open, enjoying the forest and its wildlife around the small group. He was the one worrying least about anything, more frolicking than just walking, his bag constantly slapping against his side. That, too, was not bothering him too much, it seemed.

Fern, of course, was leading the group, brushing aside all vegetation blocking their path. He simply marched on­ward, without taking the time to observe his surroundings at all. That was Can’s task: she was walking behind him, from time to time pointing out things he was supposed to notice but did not, and occasionally grinning and gener­ally being amused at him when he stumbled over a root or overlooked a twig that would then slap him into the face.

But other than that, there was little to no talking at all - something that visibly bothered Phineas who mindlessly fiddled around with the retracted pocket knife. Ferb knew that his brother wanted, and needed, to talk about some­thing, _ anything _ , so he put a hand on the redhead’s shoul­der to gain his attention. When Phineas looked at him, probably surprised someone actually wanted to talk to him after he, in his own opinion, had not really left much of a great first impression, Ferb just nodded at Bue, hop­ing his brother would get the message. _ He’d be happy to talk to you, I’m sure. _

That really seemed to brighten Phineas’ mood and he sped up his steps to catch up with Bue.

»Oh, hey, Phineas!« The chubby boy smiled at him, genuinely happy to have someone to talk to. »Are you _ re­ally _ from another world? That’s _ so _ cool! What’s it like there?«

This question also caught the attention of the other travelers, Ferb noticed. They all wanted to know more about this strange place the brothers were from.

»Well, it’s... sunny«, Phineas started, not really sure how to begin. »Because it’s summer, so everyone’s eat­ing ice cream and going swimming and stuff like that.«

»What’s ice cream?«, Bue asked him.

»Frozen water with flavors«, the redhead laughed. »Re­ally delicious! But that’s probably not too interesting when compared to what _ we’re _ doing!«

A little smile appeared on Ferb's face. He knew what was coming now.

Phineas enjoyed the silence full of suspense for a mo­ment before continuing, »We’re building the biggest, best things ever! Time machines and rockets and all those things to make summer absolutely fantastic.«

»Let’s just say you’re creating things so beyond belief that we don’t even know what you’re talking about«, Fern pointed out. But that was not meant to sound rude: his interest in the topic even beat the last caution about his surroundings he had left. Still walking, he had looked at Phineas as he said that, making him trip over another root once again. Can had to grab his arm and pull him back into a standing position to prevent him from landing face-first on the ground. She rolled her eyes at him in a more teasing than annoyed manner, and he tried to act as if nothing had happened, facing the path in front of them again, this time without turning his head as he spoke. »The others already told you, we’ve got nothing like that in this world.«

That did not stop Phineas’ excitement at all - quite the contrary. »Well, we’re gonna show you! Ferb’s got a book full of pictures of everything we’ve built this sum­mer.«

Ferb nodded. He kept _ Ferb’s Log _ with him at all times and would not mind showing it to his new friends.

»Once we’re taking a break, that is«, Can decided. »So we won’t be losing too much time.«

That seemed to frustrate Bue a bit, as if he was too im­patient to wait any longer. Phineas noticed that and quickly went on talking.

»Of course, those things aren’t what makes the summer great«, he explained. »It’s the time we’re spending with family and friends that counts.«

»Yeah, if you _ have _ family«, Bal muttered. If anyone heard that, nobody let it show, and Ferb, too, kept silent, as usual. _ If… no, when one of us dies, what becomes of the other one? _

»We’ve got a sister, Candace«, Phineas went on, oblivious to Bal's comment. »And she’s great! A little stressed most of the time, but the best big sister ever.«

Once again, Ferb spotted Can flinching at those words, just like when she had first met Phineas. It reminded him that nobody had ever spoken a single word about _ his _ look-alike. Where was he? _ Or do I even want to know? _

»And Ferb’s the best brother«, the redhead continued, interrupting his thoughts. But Ferb knew that the red­headed boy was sharing his worries. What had happened to this world’s Phineas - and which of the brothers would die?

_’ One brother slain’_ \- that was not even the line worry­ing Ferb the most. It was what came afterward: _ ’The other one his fate will claim’ _ . One would be severely hurt, the other one would die saving him - and yet, some­how, at the end of their journey, they would still be five people more than they were now. But who knew how many people they would meet, and how many of their current group would die in the process? Ferb tried to ban­ish these thoughts from his head, they did not matter now.

What mattered was that the group had gone silent again as Bue tried to come up with another thing to ask. But this time, Phineas was faster than him.

»You know what else we’re always doing back home?«, he asked nobody in particular.

Bue shook his head, absolutely interested.

»We’re singing!«

Bal looked at him like he was completely insane. The others, too, were not really convinced.

»Singing?«, Fern repeated. That had made him lose his focus on the path and the vegetation again, but this time he was able to prevent himself from falling on his own. Ferb saw him glance around, as if making sure that no­body had noticed this little incident. His eyes met Ferb's, who decided to look at him in an  » _ Is something wrong? You look nervous«  _ \- kind of way. That made Fern turn away in what seemed to be embarrassment, and once more, he pretended that nothing had happened. Can, however, had followed his gaze and questioningly stared at Ferb, who simply shrugged in reply. She rolled her eyes again - visibly exhausted from dealing with Fern, it seemed.

Phineas did not notice any of that. He simply nodded at Fern's question from moments ago. For a moment, he even seemed to consider explaining the term 'singing' to him.

»We know what singing is«, Bal told him, reading his thoughts, sounding as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Which it probably was. »I just do not know why you would do that - often, it seems.«

Ferb helped his brother out this time.

»Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words«, he said casually. He saw Phineas chuckling at that: his brother most likely thought Ferb himself to be the very definition of poetic phrases. Which was true, he did like to express himself with a certain melody, of both mean­ing and syntax, in his words - and, occasionally, in song, if the situation allowed it.

»Can you sing something now?«, Bue asked Phineas, full of excitement.

Even Fern agreed. »Anything to give us motivation on this journey is more than welcome, especially while we're still this far from the truly dangerous zone.« _ More like 'anything that doesn't distract me too much while I'm walking' _ , Ferb added silently.

He also silently thanked the resistance’s leader for this: Phineas was now just as excited as Bue, just like he al­ways was when he was about to sing a song. The redhead threw the pocket knife back to Ferb, who smoothly caught it in one hand, within seconds transforming it into some kind of very simplistic string instrument. They had built this device some weeks ago: a small machine that could turn into dozens of different objects with countless applications. To achieve that, they had to make the options as simple as possible to fit it all into the tiny space, so it was not at all like a proper guitar from back home. But this banjo of sorts would have to do as Ferb's musical accompaniment.

And then, the air was filled with not all too natural mu­sic as Phineas walked past Fern to lead the way, follow­ing the small trail deeper into the forest and closer to their fate.

 

_ »Look out new world, here we come, _

_ Brave, intrepid and then some. _

_ Pioneers of maximum _

_ Audacity whose resumes _

_ Show that we are just the team _

_ To live where others merely dream, _

_ Building up a head of steam _

_ On the trail we blaze! _ «

 

Phineas tirelessly sang as he shoved branches aside and jumped over roots, climbed on trunks that had fallen over ages ago, never losing sight of the trail in front of them - and being much more agile and focused than Fern had been. Although the others did not leave the trail at all, they all enjoyed the change of attitude in the group - Phineas’ singing and Ferb’s music even managed to make Bal seem a little less grumpy.

 

_ »Changing legend into fact, _

_ We shall ride into history. _

_ Turning myth into truth, _

_ We shall surely gaze _

_ On the sweet unfolding _

_ Of an antique mystery – _

_ All will be revealed _

_ On the trail we blaze! _ «

 

Ferb was actually quite surprised Phineas sang this op­timistically about the events to come. But that was in his brother’s nature: at least for the length of a song, he was able to forget all the problems and dangers ahead of them - and as Phineas repeated these lines, it seemed to have the same effect on most of the others as well. Although being out of tune, Bue sang along, and Ferb could hear Fern and Can humming the song’s melody - even after Phineas had stopped singing and Ferb was no longer playing his instrument.

And for a little while, just this once, everything seemed completely alright.

 


	6. Two Kinds of Nerd

»Linda, look!«

The red-haired woman was doing the dishes, cleaning up the remains of breakfast.

»What is it, Lawrence?«, she asked, showing no signs of not liking her current activity. She sounded as cheerful as always - well, nearly always, Candace knew. One of the few ways to actually anger her mother was trying to let her know about Phineas and Ferb’s daily adventures. Linda never saw any of their inventions and thus never actually believed Candace in the first place, which, in turn, frustrated the girl as well.

The teenager had just arrived downstairs, sitting down at the table to eat the dairy free sandwich her mother had prepared for her.

Candace wasn’t too interested in the  _Daily Danville_ , the city’s official newspaper, so she only half listened to Lawrence, her stepfather, enthusiastically showing his wife the front page of today’s issue.

»They have finally opened the new exhibition at the Danville Museum!«, he exclaimed with his remarkable British accent. » _Horse in a Bookcase_  - the true story be­hind the renowned TV phenomenon.«

»Ugh, are there  _really_  people that would visit that?«, Candace wondered, not the least bit interested.

»Candace, that is your father’s favorite show!«, Linda reminded her, only to be interrupted by Lawrence him­self.

»Ah, well, Linda, not my  _favorite_ ! That’s still   _Pinhead Pierre_. But still, this is an opportunity I don’t want to miss. And look, there are coupons in the newspaper: one person gets their ticket for free!«

»Don’t look at me«, Candace immediately announced. »I’ve got better things to do than staring at a donkey in a bookcase for hours.«

»It’s a  _horse_ «, Lawrence corrected her, still sounding thrilled. He would explain the whole show to her if she asked, she was all too well aware.

»And anyway, Candace«, Linda pointed out. »Knowing you, those ‘better things’ involve you phoning me every ten minutes about things that, as soon as I’m home, have suddenly vanished from existence.«

The girl took another bite off her sandwich. »It’s  _true_ «, she insisted. »And it’s not   _my_  fault their inventions are al­ways gone before you get to see them!«

»Well, it’s not my fault either«, her mother argued, turning to the brown-haired man eagerly reading the full article in the newspaper. »Lawrence, when does that place open again?«

»At the same time as all other museums, of course. Nine in the morning - which is in half an hour!«, the man added surprisedly as he looked at his watch. »We really should get going if we don’t want to get trapped in a queue.«

 _As if_ , Candace added, but kept that thought to herself. More arguing was the last thing she needed this early in the morning.

Linda nodded, staring almost regretfully at the remain­ing dishes. As much as she liked housework, she always put family first. Even if that meant leaving the tedious chores to her daughter.

»Candace, would you please do the dishes while we’re away?«, the woman asked as she dried her hands with a towel, but her tone made it clear that declining was not an option. »And while you’re at it, vacuum a bit as well, okay?«

»Yeah, yeah«, the girl sighed. »Anything else that’ll stop me from calling you about the boys?«

»Now that you’re asking… you  _could_  clean Perry’s lit­ter box.«

»Where is that little fellow, anyway?«, Lawrence won­dered, but nobody replied. Linda was already getting her purse, and Candace was bitterly eating the rest of her breakfast.

\---

When she finished her sandwich, her parents had al­ready driven off to the museum. Candace glared at the stack of dishes still piled up from breakfast, then shook her head. She would only be doing the housework if her brothers were attempting nothing, as she called it, ‘bust-worthy’. That was more important than the dishes and the vacuum cleaner: chores could wait, inventions could not.

Not having heard any loud noises from outside, Can­dace was filled with a tiny amount of hope. Maybe her brothers would leave her alone today. Then again, small things had a bigger chance of disappearing all of a sud­den… but the only way to find out was by going outside. So the girl headed straight into the living room with its tall glass door leading into the backyard.

As it turned out, Phineas and Ferb had decided to in­vent something yet again - a tall, round machine with a hole in its center, bearing a striking resemblance to the device that had once swapped Candace’s body with that of the family’s pet platypus.

»Not  _again_ «, she groaned, heading outside to further investigate today’s invention. Indeed, it was almost an exact replica of the, albeit accidentally, mind-swapping machine from the beginning of summer. Had they run out of ideas?   _No, not Phineas._   There had to be something new and bust-worthy about this thing somewhere.   _Where are those two, anyway?_

»Phineas? Ferb?«, Candace called out, but there was no reply. »I swear, if this is some kind of invisibility ma­chine…«

If it was, they would give her at least some sort of sign at some point, she knew. Her brothers and their friends might be an annoying bunch of kids, but even Candace had to admit that they weren’t getting on her nerves on purpose. So she sat down and waited.

Then, she paced up and down the backyard - but still, no sign of her brothers.

»Guys, this isn’t funny«, Candace exclaimed, with a hint of worry in her voice. She looked at the machine again, in the hope of somehow finding out what it was good for. The teenager remembered that Phineas’ inten­tion with the original device had been some kind of tele­porter, but this thing didn’t seem to have any kind of set destination. In fact, the little monitor on its side was com­pletely black, and the little openings on its inside indicat­ing the spots the portal would probably have formed from appeared slightly charred.

_Wait._

Candace took a closer look. She understood nothing about technology at all, but even she was able to sense how that was not something her brothers had wanted to happen. It reminded her of the experiment in Physics class that had gone wrong when she and her best friend Stacy had been distracted by Billy Clarke, one of her classmates back then. Which worried her even more: something like that would never happen to Phineas and especially Ferb, who always double-checked every inch of the machine to make sure it was functioning properly.

Candace took out her phone. She needed reassurance. What was this thing? Was it really broken? And if so, what had happened to her brothers?  _If it’s something bad, how am I going to explain this to Mom and Dad?_

But a look at her contact list proved to be useless.

Stacy? She was a whole lot smarter than Candace, sure, but even she had no clue about anything related to tech­nology.

Jeremy? He’d be willing to help, at least. But Candace had to admit that he, no matter what a great boyfriend he was, was not going to actually  _be_ helpful either.

She browsed through more contacts: Jenny, Coltrane, even Ferb’s cousin Eliza. Yet, for one reason or another, they were not the kind of person she needed.

What she needed was a nerd.

\---

»I can’t believe I’m doing this«, Candace sighed. She was standing in front of a beige building with just one floor. Its entrance was decorated with two plants in vases the shape of elephants, adding to the house’s oriental at­mosphere. Next to the door, there was an actual bell acti­vated by pulling a cord, which was what Candace now did. She had never been to this place before, only walked past it occasionally.

The door was almost immediately opened by an Indian woman with her black hair tied into a bun and a green-and-yellow dress, fitting her culture, above khaki pants.

»Candace Flynn?«, the woman asked. They had met only once or twice this summer, and Candace assumed she only recognized her because of the similarities to her mom - people often said they looked alike, after all.

»Uh, yeah«, the teenager replied, feeling a bit awk­ward. She only hoped this woman would not try to have a long-winded conversation with her like Isabella’s mother always did. »Hello, Mrs. Tjinder… is Baljeet home?«

»Yes, he is«, the boy’s mother nodded. »He should be in his room, studying -«

»Alright, thanks«, Candace said as she hurried past the woman. After all, she had no time to lose: for once, the last thing she needed was her parents seeing Phineas and Ferb’s invention, especially before she had found her broth­ers.

Mildly offended, Mrs. Tjinder pointed out, »His room is in the other direction.«

»Thanks again«, the girl acknowledged, heading into the other side of the building. She went straight to the only door she spotted there; the hallway had transitioned into the living room without any doors in between.

That door, however, was locked.

»Baljeet?«, she called out.

»Explain quantum theory«, an audibly annoyed voice responded.

»What?«, Candace replied. Was that some kind of se­cret code? Nothing she had expected, for sure.

»You heard me. Answer or leave, I am  _busy._ «

 _Studying_ , Candace remembered, sighing.   _During sum­mer vacation._

»Baljeet, open the stupid door«, she demanded.

»The door does not possess consciousness, Candace.«

_I really can’t believe I’m doing this._

»Look, Baljeet, I need your help, okay? It’s kinda ur­gent.«

»I am not going to do your homework, if that is what you are trying to say.«

»No, I - ugh. It’s about my brothers. They’re gone.«

»Gone where?«

»I don’t know! That’s why I’m here, you’re the only one smart enough to help me figure it out.«

That seemed to have convinced Baljeet, because with an audible click, he unlocked the door. »Do not touch anything«, he warned her as she entered his room, and she soon enough saw why: everything was neatly ar­ranged, from enormous bookshelves to a desk full of pa­perwork and some advanced math book that made Can­dace’s head hurt just by looking at it. The Indian boy was sitting at that table, wearing his usual light blue t-shirt and dark blue overalls.

Other than the chair he was sitting on, the only place to take a seat was his bed, but Baljeet let out a warning noise when she tried to sit down there. Candace rolled her eyes and remained standing as she explained to him every detail about what she had found in the backyard. She had even taken pictures of it, which the boy looked at with great interest. But when the girl described the charred areas to him, Baljeet widened his eyes.

»...um, Candace?«

»What’s wrong?«, she asked him. Baljeet did not sound like he had any great news.

»Your brothers… I do believe they are…  _dead_!«, he exclaimed, completely terrified. »Oh, this is terrible! I cannot believe it -«

»Whoa, whoa, chill!«, Candace raised her hands. »You’re just overreacting. It… surely cannot be  _that_  bad?«

»Of course it is!«, the boy argued. »If this is a tele­porter, and it malfunctioned like this the exact moment they stepped through it, then they were brutally torn apart by the fabrics of space and time!« Baljeet’s voice got higher the more he talked; he was completely panicking by now.

And Candace had absolutely no idea what to do: he just  _had_  to be overreacting about her brothers’ situation, and she barely knew Baljeet, so she probably couldn’t calm him down even if she wanted to.

She could at least try, however.

»And what if it malfunctioned  _after_  they already ar­rived where they wanted to go?«, she pointed out.

Baljeet stopped pacing the room, something he had done while vividly imagining the possibilities of Phineas and Ferb’s fate, and seemed to consider this option for a moment.

»Well«, he began, in a much less high-pitched voice than before. That was a good sign, Candace hoped. »In that case, they would be fine, but the gateway back to your house would be destroyed.«

»That’s not that bad, is it?«, the girl presumed. »They’ll just build something to get back here in less than an hour, as always.«

But Baljeet crushed her hope immediately.

»Not if they have teleported themselves into a remote area like, say, a desert - or the moon, for example.«

»Fine, but there’s got to be something we can do!« She was not just going to sit there and wait for them to return if that was the case, maybe they needed her help. »We need to find out where they are, at least. You can do that, right?«  _You’re a nerd, after all._

»Candace, they could be anywhere!«, the Indian boy reminded her. »What do you want to do, scan the entire planet?«

»Sure, why not?«

»That is not - how did you get in here?« Baljeet turned towards his bed where the sound had come from. Sitting there, and destroying the perfect even appearance of the sheets, was Buford, as if this place belonged to him. On top of that, he was eating some kind of filled pastry which Baljeet immediately recognized as something his own mother had made. »And where did you get that?«

Buford shrugged as if there was nothing unusual about anything happening right now. »Well, first off, I got here through the door, obviously! Aaand your mom told me to bring this stuff to you two, but as it turns out, whatever this is tastes, like, really amazing, so I decided to eat it all by myself.« With that, he put another one of these Indian snacks into his mouth.

Baljeet seemed to try really hard not to get mad at his friend, simply letting out a very exasperated sigh. »Why is this not surprising me?«, he wondered, immediately getting back to the important matters. »Anyway, Buford, would you mind explaining to us how we are supposed to scan the entire planet without the help of Phineas and Ferb?«

»What’s that supposed to mean?«, Buford replied, audi­bly offended. But Candace wasn’t so sure what part of Baljeet’s words he meant by that. »It’s not like we can’t do great stuff without them!«

»Scanning the planet is not one of those things, Buford«, the Indian boy sighed.

»Oh yeah? Unlike you little nerd, I actually  _can_  do that! I’ve got all it takes back home.« There was a chal­lenging tone in the bully’s voice now, superior even.

»That is ridiculous«, Baljeet scoffed, but was interrupt­ed by Candace before he was able to argue with Buford even more.

»If it helps me find my brothers, I’ll take that chance«, she announced, causing Buford to grin.

The bully stuffed the final piece of food he was carry­ing into his mouth and swallowed it in one bite.

»What are you waiting for? Let’s go!«

\---

»I cannot believe this is happening«, Baljeet whispered in both amazement and disbelief. He was sitting on a chair in Buford’s room, watching the bully typing an in­credibly long code in a programming language neither Baljeet nor Candace had ever seen or heard of, at an even more unbelievable speed. Eventually, he hit Enter, confi­dently leaning back and crossing his arms behind his head while the program was processing the commands it had been given.

»You’re not the only smart guy in here, nerd«, Buford grinned.

Candace was as baffled as Baljeet. From what she had known about the bully, he was by far not the most intelli­gent person, hardly ever caring about anything Baljeet or anyone else told him. All she ever thought him to be was, well. A kid - who did nothing but sleep, eat, and occas­ionally bully other people. But this?

»Don’t you dare tell anyone else about this«, Buford warned them. »It’s bad enough that you two know. I’m still capable of giving wedgies!«

»How did you learn all this?«, Baljeet asked him, still staring at the lines of code on the screen of Buford’s computer that were slightly blurred out by a little window informing the reader about the code being processed. »That is such a complex code!«

»Long story«, the bully shrugged. Candace had expect­ed him to boast about his skills even more, but the boy seemed to avoid the question completely. »Ah, there we go.«

Candace turned to the screen again. It was now done loading and showed a satellite image of Earth - yet again blurred out by a small window.

»' _No results found'_ \- what does that mean?«, she asked, both skeptical and confused.

»Looks like I’m really not the dumbest one here«, Bu­ford commented. »It’s right there: no results found. Wherever they are, they’re not anywhere on the planet.«

Baljeet gulped, reminding Candace of his theory.  _Bru­tally torn apart by the fabrics of space and time…_

»Your little program could have gotten something wrong though, right?«, she suggested in an attempt to banish the picture from her head.

»Wrong«, Buford shook his head, once again sounding offended. »That code is inerrant!«

Baljeet raised an eyebrow in a » _Since when do you know what inerrant means?_ «- manner, but nobody paid any attention to him.

»Then what do we do?«, Candace asked, hoping that would prevent Baljeet, and herself, from thinking about the not so positive option once again.

»You’re going back to the machine«, Buford instructed. »You know,  _don’t_  let your mom see it. We’ll need to fix that thing and go after your brothers. So we -«, he shot a glare at Baljeet, »We are gonna get help from the only person on the planet that can help us with that.«

»And who is that?«, the Indian boy asked skeptically.

Buford smiled at him; genuinely, without his usual teasing grin.

»My dad.«

 


	7. Rubicon

»Alright, boys. Lunch break!«

The group came to a halt. They had been walking for hours through the seemingly endless forest that still sur­rounded them. The only difference to the beginning of their journey, Phineas noticed, was the sound of a rolling river not too far from them. The river running through Danville was quite wide, and the boy assumed that the one he was hearing now must be its equivalent from this… parallel world. Everyone, and everything, seemed to exist in both places, however that was even possible.

_ I’ll have to ask Baljeet about that when we get back _ , Phineas decided, pushing aside all _ if _ s. For now, he was enjoying the moment. The song from earlier had really lifted his mood, and he was not going to let himself get bothered by the path ahead. And there was no better way to do that than with a good lunch.

The meal, however, only consisted of fruits and vegeta­bles looking like the resistance had grown them. Which actually was the case, Phineas reminded himself. How else were they supposed to get food when they were the only people left? Of course, they could go into the woods for hunting, but Bal had decided not to waste any of his arrows. He was absolutely certain he would need them for _'something else'_ , as he had put it. Which could only mean the darklings, Phineas was all too well aware.

Can had taken several apples, tomatoes, and other not too big or heavy foods from her backpack and handed them around. Phineas did not feel all too hungry and did not want to appear greedy either, so he only picked a small apple while everyone was making themselves comfortable - af­ter all, even the leaders of the resistance were exhausted from walking for several hours without taking a break.

»Not really what you are used to, huh?« That remark came from Bal, who had either not eaten anything or al­ready finished his meal, considering he was not holding any kind of food and Can was putting her backpack away again.

»We’ve all eaten better stuff«, Fern reminded him. »And he’s not even complaining, so there’s no need to act like that.« That was the first time someone actually defended Phineas since he had come here. Earlier, the others had all shown little sympathy for him, even after learning about the prophecy. Sure, they hardly knew Phineas, but he was fairly sure they even liked Ferb more than him - because he had agreed on helping them, be­cause he was able to fight, and probably also because he looked like Fern. _ Why can’t this world’s version of me be here? That would make this so much easier. _ All he need­ed was a chance, Phineas knew. A chance to show all of them that there was no reason to act like Ferb was better than him.

This opportunity revealed itself sooner than expected.

»I will go ahead and check the river for a way to cross it«, Bal told his two leaders. »If you do not mind.«

»That’s a good idea«, Can nodded. »Thanks, Bal.«

»Of course«, the boy replied, sounding slightly ner­vous.

_ Not nervous _ , Phineas realized, _ flustered _ . What was go­ing on between them?

There was only one way to find out - about this, and about so much more.

»I’m coming with you«, Phineas suddenly offered be­fore remembering to ask for actual permission. »If that’s okay, of course.«

Everyone looked at him in surprise. Even Ferb raised an eyebrow.

»What for?«, Fern asked the redhead.

_ Because I want to be useful _ . But he was not going to tell him that.

»If something bad happens to one of us, the other one can get help«, Phineas eventually said, hoping he sound­ed at least somewhat believable.

»But you wanted to show us your inventions!«, Bue frowned.

»I can do that.«

Ferb had taken out the book in which he documented all of their inventions, _ Ferb’s Log _ . His eyes met those of his brother, and Phineas immediately knew what he was thinking. _ I don’t know what your plan is, but go ahead. I’ll take care of this. _

»Thanks«, Phineas mouthed, smiling. He could always rely on Ferb, he knew.

Bue still seemed a bit upset, but that was soon forgot­ten when Ferb opened his book full of photographs of ev­erything the boys had done over the summer.

»Are you coming or not?« Bal was getting impatient, so Phineas quickly turned back to him and nodded. The taller boy gave him an acknowledging nod as well, head­ing into the direction of the river that was becoming louder with every step they took.

As soon as he was certain the others could not hear them anymore, Bal beat Phineas on the matter of starting the conversation. »Do not think I am not aware of what you are trying to achieve here«, he told the other boy without turning his head to face him.

»What’s that supposed to mean?« Phineas should have known this would happen. Bal really made it obvious he was not too fond of him.

Bal shrugged. »People like you always do that. They are too inexperienced when it comes to serious situations, yet still want to join the more experienced in an attempt to be helpful. And trust me, they are not.«

Phineas sighed. The other boy was right, he knew. »Then what am I supposed to do?«, he asked. »All of you think Ferb is so much better than me because he’s got fighting skills and everything. I’m just the weak and use­less one to you, right? How am I supposed to change that when you don’t let me?« He had not planned to tell Bal all of that, but he had always been bad at concealing his frustration in the rare moments he actually was upset.

The archer had stopped walking by now, listening to the redhead’s words. »And what if we do get into trouble now?«, he wondered. »I would rather keep you out of danger unless it absolutely cannot be avoided.« Bal was looking at Phineas now, who could tell from the sound of his words that he was being absolutely honest. »I do not hate you, Phineas. I am merely attempting to get as few people hurt, or killed, as possible.«

Phineas let that sink in. Had he been overreacting? In this world, people as young as himself had to fear the constant threat of the darklings, and he still perfectly re­membered his first encounter with those beasts. It was only understandable that the others worried about him in particular. _ And Bue _ , he realized, watching Bal. _ I bet Bal has said the same things to him. _

The archer seemed to have thought the same. »Bue also tries to join us on patrols or hunts whenever he can«, he explained. »Luckily, Ivan usually keeps him busy enough.«

The two boys had reached the river by now. It was more than a hundred feet wide, just like the river crossing Danville - but in either direction, there was no visible way to get to the other side.

»Great«, Bal muttered. »How are we supposed to cross it? There is no bridge in sight.«

»There has to be«, Phineas argued. »If the darklings can cross the river without getting wet, we can too, right?«

Bal nodded, sounding surprised that Phineas had come with such an idea. »Sounds logical. Geographically speaking, it would make the most sense for a bridge to be located near the center of the country…« He closed his eyes for a moment, most likely trying to picture a map, then started walking upstream.

Phineas followed him, coming up with another ques­tion: »Have you ever been to the other side of the river?«

Bal shook his head. »Most of us come from places lo­cated on this side of it. After the Duke took over, we nev­er dared to cross the river again, considering that was, well, _ his _ side.«

And now their group wanted to go exactly there.

Phineas remembered that nobody had ever actually talked about the Duke at all. He had never asked them about it either, the moment just had never really felt right for that. Now, however, he was alone with Bal, and walk­ing in silence. Which, in his opinion, was boring, espe­cially with such a big chance to ask questions. Bal was not the type to lie, Phineas knew.

»And when did he take over?«, he therefore asked his companion. »I mean… what even happened?«

Bal did not even seem to be surprised about that ques­tion. He had probably expected that one of the brothers would ask about that matter at some point.

»Do you know what kings are?«

Of course Phineas knew. There were still some coun­tries ruled by a king, but the boy quickly came to the con­clusion that Bal had meant the truly medieval kind. He also knew about those; _ King Arthur _ was one of Ferb’s fa­vorite tales.

The redhead nodded at the question, so Bal began to explain what had happened.

»This country was ruled by a king once. His ancestors had been on the throne for centuries, but none of them were as wise, as just, as merry as him. He always put the people first, and there was hardly anyone who disliked him.

»Ten years ago, however, the castle was attacked by a man calling himself the Duke. He appeared out of nowhere, the tales say. Then, he killed the king and left as quickly as he had come, and for several years, nobody heard of him again.«

That was odd. Phineas had expected him to take over right after that - but it was not that simple.

»The widowed queen attempted to rule on her own be­cause she did not have a son, but some years later, a king from another country moved here in order to claim the throne.« Bal’s voice became even more bitter. »When that happened, my family came to this place as well. My parents wanted to make a fortune by selling all sorts of things to the people here, so we moved to a rather un­spectacular village where the people, in their opinion, were ‘so stupid they would buy everything’. And it was true, the business went great for them, but I would be ex­aggerating if I told you the children from this village could stand me, the boy who was so much smarter and wealthier than them.« He paused for a moment. »In the five years I lived there, I had exactly one friend.«

Phineas knew the person he was speaking about. Who else could it be but Bue?

Bal nodded, knowing how obvious the answer was. »He was kind and lovable, as you know, but his gullibili­ty made him an easy target for some of the other kids. But Bue really liked me, so we spent a lot of time togeth­er.

»When we were not much older than nine, rumors spread about a man raiding villages with an army of giant black wolves. And they seemed to be true, for word was out soon that the king that had claimed the throne earlier had fled from this country again. In an attempt of avoid­ing being assassinated as well, I suppose. Of course, the people in our village were afraid of being the Duke's next target.«

Bal was staring at the other side of the river now. It was easy to see how he was still able to vividly remember the time he was talking about. The boy was not saying anything for a moment, so Phineas probed him.

»So what did they do?«

Bal flinched. He had most likely been so lost in memo­ries that he had completely forgotten about Phineas. »Well«, he eventually responded, still with bitterness in his voice. »My parents were able to convince the folk that the Duke was most likely not going to attack the village, and kill everyone, if they left him and his darklings some sort of… human sacrifice.«

Phineas gasped, but Bal continued talking.

»They had never approved of me befriending one of the ‘lowly’ village kids, so my parents decided that using Bue for that would teach me a lesson as well as solve the problem with the Duke.« He balled his fists, picturing that very day. »Of course, I could not let that happen. I could not lose my only friend… even if that meant at­tacking the darklings myself.«

»You…« Phineas could not believe it. He easily put two and two together. »But that means -«

Bal nodded, sighing. »I shot one of the darklings, and while everyone was distracted, I saved Bue and ran away. But one darkling chased us, attempted to kill Bue… so I ended up stepping between them to save him once more.« He ran a hand down his back as he spoke, causing Phineas to gulp. He did not want to imagine how badly Bal had gotten injured that day.

»When I woke up again, I was inside a cave, and a blind boy named Ivan told me what had happened - and where I was.« For the first time in minutes, Bal looked at Phineas again, his eyes still full of bitterness about old memories. »It was Fern who had found and saved us from the darkling that day«, he explained. »No king or prince or knight. And that only reinforced what I had always believed: that royalty is not good for anything.« He let that sink in for a moment before continuing. »Fern invited us to join the resistance - and we did. After all, what were we supposed to do, now that everyone we knew had been killed by the darklings? To this day, I protect Bue with my life, as well as I will risk it for the people who saved us. And for you two, now that you are supposed to re­store peace to this country.«

Phineas did something unusual: he remained silent for quite a while. He had expected lots of things, but not this. Bal was, to some extent, responsible for the death of an entire village… his shock must have been visible, be­cause Bal soon added something else.

»You are not the only one having experienced a lot in twelve years, you know. Just… please, do not tell anyone about this, alright? Other than you, only Bue and Ivan know about all of this, and I would like to keep it that way.«

The red-haired boy nodded, still processing everything he had just heard. Bal’s story had made him realize even more how different their worlds and lives were, and that everyone was _ really _ considering Ferb to be better than Phineas, at least when it came to fighting skills. One was quite screwed without being able to defend themselves against the darklings.

Only now did both boys notice they had found their destination: a bridge in a distance of about three hundred feet. They had not seen it earlier because of being dis­tracted by Bal’s story, and now they quickly walked over to it to check if it was safe to cross.

As it turned out, the bridge was made of wood and looked like it had not been used for years. Several planks were missing or broken, leaving holes, with the rushing river beneath. But other than that, it looked stable enough to carry a person.

»It is the only way to cross the river anyway«, Bal de­cided.

_ Such a shame we can’t build a boat _ , Phineas thought. »It’ll have to do«, he nodded, and Bal already turned back into the direction they had come from.

»We should get back to the others, they are probably already getting worried.«

 

There were not. When Phineas and Bal had returned to the group, Fern, Can, and Bue were all sitting around Ferb and his book, completely fascinated by the things he was showing them. Currently, it was the page about their trip around the world, Phineas discovered.

»It seems you are having fun«, Bal noted, but not di­recting it to anybody in particular.

Bue looked up, with a huge grin on his face. »Oh, hey! You missed _ so _ much! He showed us a time travel thingie and a tournament with knights and -«

»Have you found a way to cross the river?«, Can inter­rupted him, causing Bue to pout while crossing his arms.

Phineas nodded. »It’s not too far from here.«

Fern stood up again while Ferb put away his book. »Well, then we better get moving. We’ve got no time to lose.«

Can grabbed her backpack and Bal immediately led the group back to the bridge - with Bue beside him, telling him about the things Ferb had shown them without seem­ing to take a breath as he spoke.

Phineas was walking close to his brother, who was oddly good-humored. Apparently, unlike the redhead, Ferb really had been having fun. »Far less rough than Bu­ford, but just as exhausting«, the green-haired boy re­marked before noticing Phineas was not wearing his usu­al smile. He shot a glance at his brother; _ Is everything al­right? _

»Yeah, don’t worry«, Phineas told him, trying to hide how much he was still thinking about what Bal had been through. He was not allowed to tell Ferb, he knew, but he was not even sure whether he would have been able to talk about these things in the first place. »He just… told me some stuff about this place, that’s all.«

Ferb did not ask him for more information, something Phineas was always thankful for. His brother could sense when someone really not wanted to talk about things. And so, they were walking the rest of the way in silence, until the group finally arrived at the bridge.

»The only one we found«, Bal explained upon seeing surprised and skeptical expressions on his friends' faces.

»It will have to do«, Fern supposed, repeating what Phineas had said earlier. »Phineas, you go first. You are the lightest.«

At first, the boy thought Fern was doing that because he didn’t like him, but especially after Bal’s talk, he knew that was ridiculous. Fern was right, after all: he was the lightest one.

So Phineas walked towards the bridge and grabbed the railing on one side of the construction that was about fif­teen feet wide in total. He was well aware that he should not be putting too much trust in the railing, but he needed to hold onto something. Phineas carefully took a step for­ward and slowly put more weight on that foot, eventually deciding that the next plank was going to support him if he just did it slowly. With this technique, the boy pro­ceeded, the holes in the bridge always reminding him of the consequences of a false step. In fact, Phineas was so focused on his path that he only noticed the bridge’s end when he suddenly spotted grass below himself.

The redhead sighed with relief, turning around to tell the others. Fern and Ferb were already on the bridge by now - understandable, considering its length. It would have taken far too much time if everyone had been walk­ing over the bridge alone. Phineas watched them, notic­ing how they were just as careful as he had been. But they, too, were able to reach the other side without diffi­culty.

Can was next, and when she had already crossed half of the bridge, Bue followed her. Bal, as usual, was watching his best friend, ready to help him in case of trouble.

But there was nothing he could do when Bue slipped on a wet plank and the sudden extra weight broke the wood in front of him. Combined with a hole that had al­ready been there, the empty space was now big enough for Bue to fall through, and he landed directly in the river.

»Bal!«, he screamed, completely helplessly drifting in the stream that was rapidly carrying him away. The archer intended to follow him, but was stopped by Can, who had reached the other side by now.

»You can’t even swim, you fool!«, she yelled, and luckily, Bal listened to her - but now he was forced to watch the scene without being able to do anything.

Now that he knew about the boy’s past, Phineas could only imagine what this must feel like to Bal - there had to be something they could do! Phineas, for one, was able to swim, so he attempted the same: going after Bue to pull him back out.

Ferb, however, was faster than him: he tossed his sword to the ground, ran past his brother, jumped into the river, and caught up with Bue with a few long strokes. Again, Phineas was only mad at him for a split second. Ferb was stronger than him, and if the redhead had followed Bue, that would probably have caused even more of a problem.

Still, not everything was going great for Ferb either: he had reached Bue, but pulling him out of the river while fighting against the current was a whole other thing. At least he was strong enough to stop the stream from carry­ing them further away for now, but everyone knew that he could not be doing that for much longer.

_ Think, Phineas, think! _ If anyone could save them now, it was Phineas. What he needed was some kind of… in­vention.

His eyes scanned his surroundings, almost immediately spotting a tall branch further downstream. It was too high for Ferb to grab, unless…

The redhead spotted the sword Ferb had dropped. With this weapon, he could chop down the branch - but Phineas was well aware that he was not strong enough for that. His eyes met Fern’s, who was carrying his own sword, after all.

»The branch!«, Phineas exclaimed, pointing at it. Fern followed his gaze and immediately understood. He un­sheathed his sword, and for one brief moment, Phineas found himself gasping.

The weapon was made out of flawlessly polished steel, and its handle was just as silver. The sword’s pommel was in the shape of an eagle’s head, with a dark green gem resembling the bird’s eye.

Everyone else was busy with the current situation, and Fern had already arrived at the branch, separating it from the tree with one smooth cut. But Phineas could not help but wonder, _ Did he find that sword somewhere… or is that really his own? _

Just like Can, Phineas decided to help Fern with hold­ing the branch - he alone would not be able to pull Ferb and Bue out with it. Even Bal had reached this side of the river by now, and he was the first to put his hands on the piece of wood. Phineas and the siblings did the same, slowly pushing the branch towards Ferb… who really did not seem to have much strength left. He gladly put one arm around it, too exhausted to do anything else. Once that was done, the four people on the shore pulled the branch away from the river with all their strength. Not an actual invention, but it would have to do. _ This is not how the prophecy kills one of us. _

But they made little progress, and Phineas saw why: with some of them pulling while the others were trying to take a breath, this was never going to work. »We have to do it together!«

Fern nodded. »You heard him, guys. One, two… three!«

All four of them used their entire energy at the sound of this number - and fell backward onto the shore when Ferb had reached it and let go of the branch. Bal, again, was the first to be there, and sighed with relief when Bue was nothing but exhausted.

»I’m fine«, the chubby boy exclaimed with a weak smile, and to Phineas, Bal’s thoughts were obvious. _ I thought I would lose you again. _

Ferb, meanwhile, was lying on the ground, just as soaked as Bue. He had been using much more of his en­ergy, and was far more exhausted than the other boy. Seeing him like that worried Phineas, so he checked on his brother to make sure he was alright.

»Ferb, are you okay?«, he asked, nudging him slightly.

After a second of no reaction, and a second of even more worry, Ferb got on his feet, still quite wobbly, and gave his brother a thumbs-up. Phineas grinned and hugged him, incredibly glad he was fine - and, of course, to stop him from falling down.

»Here«, Fern said, putting his own jacket around Ferb. »For now, you need it more than I do.«

»Thanks«, Phineas replied for his brother, knowing that he still was not in the condition to say anything, and Ferb shot him a thankful glance.

»They’re both fine«, Can summed up, sounding just as relieved as everyone else… before her eyes went to Bue’s bag he was still carrying. The boy followed her gaze and frowned.

»All my healing tools are wet now«, he realized. »They’ll need to dry before I can use them again!«

»That will happen in no time«, Fern reassured him. The leader of the resistance still insisted on moving on, most likely believing they had lost enough time already.

Can agreed on carrying Ferb’s sword for as long as he was still regaining his strength, and when they started walking again, Phineas was supporting his brother, just like Bal made sure his best friend was alright.

_ Two of us are too exhausted to walk, our healing tools are useless, and we’re entering the Duke’s territory with countless dangerous darklings. _

_ What could possibly go wrong? _

 


	8. I've Got a Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song in this chapter is Tangled's "I've Got a Dream", slightly cut and rewritten.  
> For the complete reading experience, also feel free to listen to Phineas&Ferb's "Dancing in the Sunshine" for the first couple of paragraphs.

_ »The sun is shining down on me, _

_ Dancing in the sunshine…« _

 

Baljeet covered his ears. He was sitting in the right backseat of the Van Stomm family’s car - Buford’s moth­er, Biffany, had agreed on driving them to… well, wher­ever the bully’s father lived. As it turned out, she really enjoyed listening to the radio while driving, which was nothing Baljeet would have normally minded. Biffany Van Stomm, however, had turned the volume up so high that even the most uplifting song became nearly unbear­able.

The Indian boy had attempted to ask her about lower­ing the volume, but his good manners and need for secu­rity prevented him from yelling at her or putting a hand on her shoulder. She was already driving on the very edge of the speed limit - what if trying to get her atten­tion was so unexpected for her that she caused an acci­dent? Baljeet thought of wildly drawing attention to him­self in the rear view mirror; however, Biffany was so dis­tracted by the song, he doubted she would notice any­thing.

All he could do was somehow endure this nearly deaf­ening music. Baljeet was certain that even from a scien­tific point of view, it was very close to being dangerous for his ears.

Or he could ask Buford for help.

The bully was sitting on the left backseat, staring out­side, and seemingly not caring at all about the music. Baljeet could still not believe what he had seen minutes ago: how was it possible that Buford, out of all people, was this skilled at programming? Something was fishy about that - and it was not Buford’s goldfish.

»Buford?«, Baljeet asked in his usual volume, and, as expected, the bully did not react at all. The Indian boy sighed and took the risk of poking him - which led to Bu­ford instinctively swinging a fist at his nerd. Luckily, Baljeet managed to dodge this move, putting his hands on his ears again in the hope of his friend understanding what that meant.

»Mom!«, Buford exclaimed, in a voice not much louder than usual.

To Baljeet’s surprise, Biffany heard her son, and replied without lowering the music’s volume, »Yes, hon­ey, what is it?«

Baljeet flinched. Buford’s mother had a naturally loud voice that made him do that every time she spoke, and she did not even have to raise her voice to be understood in the car. Then, Biffany spotted Baljeet with his covered ears, looked from him to the radio and back again, and grinned like she just had an epiphany. When she finally turned down the volume, Baljeet sighed so loudly and in­tensely that it must have sounded like he had just discov­ered heaven - or, at least, the corner of it where all his scientific heroes had ended up. He uncovered his ears… and quickly put his hands back on them.

Baljeet had not believed there was anything louder than the car radio, but he was mistaken.

»Get out of my way!«, Biffany _ yelled _ , followed by sev­eral words Baljeet would never dare to say and the honk­ing of her car. She drove past some other cars, definitely being over the speed limit, and around narrow curves be­fore coming to a halt so abruptly that the Indian boy al­most vomited.

»We’re there!«, Biffany exclaimed in a comparatively low volume, seemingly unbothered by everything that had just happened. »Make sure to greet the guys from me!«

»Sure thing, Mom!«, Buford replied, getting out of the car. Baljeet followed him, watching him wave to Biffany before she put her foot on the speed pedal and drove away to unnaturally loud music.

»You okay, nerd?« Buford seemed to have seen the still a little sick look on his friend’s face.

Baljeet nodded, not wanting to be made fun of. »Your mother has an… interesting driving style.«

»Far more exciting than dinner bell’s rollercoaster, I know«, the bully grinned before following the sidewalk leading away from the road.

Baljeet sighed - he would never truly understand this boy. He hurried after Buford, whose steps were naturally bigger than Baljeet’s, and gulped when he saw where his friend was taking him.

They were walking towards two not very welcom­ing-looking buildings: Danville’s central police station on the left, and on the right… the city’s prison.

_ Please go left, please go left, please go left… _ , he re­peated in his head, anxiously watching Buford.

He turned right.

Baljeet stopped walking and just stared at the brick building in front of him. Nobody had ever mentioned anything about Buford’s father at all, and now he realized why. And in retrospect, this explained so much: Buford’s attitude regarding violence, his unnaturally huge knowl­edge about prisons… _ His father must have been here for years _ , Baljeet realized, and could only wonder, _ What in the name of science did he do? _

»What?«, Buford growled. He had noticed his friend’s genuinely shocked expression.

»Buford…«, Baljeet stammered, »I did not know -«

» _ Of course _ you didn’t!«, the bully almost yelled at him. »Nobody was ever supposed to know!«

»What… what did he do?«

»He’s not a killer if you’re thinking that!« Buford was definitely yelling now. »You’re thinking that, I know you are!«

That had indeed been Baljeet’s first thought. But seeing Buford like this, he felt bad for making that assumption.

»I promise I will not tell anybody«, the Indian boy at­tempted to tell his best friend. »Please, Buford, calm down, I did not want to -«

»Shut up«, Buford interrupted him - but at least he was not yelling anymore. At this point, he was just… sad. The bully was terrible at concealing his emotions, and com­bined with their usual incredibly high intensity, it was no surprise that a lot of people avoided him or, in the case of teachers, called him ‘problematic’.

But even though Baljeet knew him better than anyone else, he had no idea how to comfort the bully. So he did what Buford told him and kept quiet. Which was usually the most useful solution anyway: Baljeet remembered that Buford was most likely going to fill the resulting si­lence with rambling.

Which was exactly what he did.

»He’s not a bad guy, alright? He’s the best dad ever, but does anyone care about that? No! All they care about is that he hacked into all of Earth’s satellites to scan the whole planet for some harmless experiment - so what? No big deal! But some idiots blackmailed him, and now he’s stuck in  _ there _ forever, because nobody’s listening to him or Mom or _ me _ !« By now, Buford was sobbing, and Baljeet did not resist when his friend hugged him. »But you believe me, don’t you?«

»Of course«, Baljeet replied, completely taken aback by this story. Buford had never been this intimate, and there was nothing he could have said to cheer him up. Luckily, Buford did that for him.

»Good«, the bully nodded, shoving Baljeet away and grinning as he did that. He acted like this short moment had never happened and headed straight for the prison.

Baljeet followed him, not even bewildered. He had stopped questioning Buford’s sudden mood changes long ago.

When Baljeet and Buford entered the prison’s entrance hall, they were the only people there - other than an apa­thetic receptionist being completely preoccupied with her smartphone. Buford walked up to her, demonstratively putting his hands down on the table with a thud.

»Buford Van Stomm«, he declared. »I’m here to see my dad.«

The receptionist did not even look up. »Mh-hm.« Bal­jeet supposed she was already familiar with Buford visit­ing his father. »I’ll let him know to be in the visiting room.« The woman was still staring at her phone, making no attempt of doing anything else.

»Come on, nerd«, Buford announced, turning back to Baljeet. »There’s nothing more to see here.«

Then, the bully walked into the left hallway, even though…

»Buford, this sign says the visiting room is in the other direction!«

»I know«, the boy shrugged.

»Then why -«

»Buford hungry.« _ Common room _ , Baljeet read on the sign pointing left. _ Mensa _ . And that settled it. All one could do when Buford wanted to eat something was giv­ing up with a sigh.

But when they reached that very place, Baljeet found himself gulping again. The room was looking like one would expect a common room to be like, with some ta­bles, chairs, and couches, pictures of things that most likely would not be causing aggression hanging on the wall, and a couple of other objects for the prisoners to spend their time with. He also noticed several surveillance cam­eras and security staff even more apathetic than the re­ceptionist. And, of course, the snack bar.

But none of these things were the reason for the boy’s sudden fear. The room was full of brawny men, some of which were more than twice as tall as Baljeet. Several of them had tattoos and/or piercings or were covered in scars - and while the Indian boy was still standing at the entrance, Buford confidently walked up to one of the groups.

»Guys, look who’s here!«, one of the men shouted.

»Isn’t that Bernie’s kid?«

»Yeah, what’re you doing here, Bufe? Aren’t you, like, only visiting once a month?«

Once again, Baljeet could not believe what he was see­ing. They all acted as if they were Buford’s friends, and the bully himself really seemed to get along great with them. _ Well _ ,  _that_ _also_ _ explains a lot of things _ .

»It’s an emergency«, Buford explained after greeting the group, causing some of the men to laugh.

»But of course, the first thing he does is getting some snacks - hey, who’s that?«

And suddenly, all eyes were on Baljeet.

»That’s Baljeet, my nerd«, Buford boasted, as if that was some kind of special achievement.

»Your dad’s going to appreciate that«, an especially tat­tooed man put in. »He'll be glad to have better company than us.«

»Hey, look, I think he’s scared of us«, a bald and broad-shouldered man with a hook for one hand spoke up, walking towards Bal­jeet. The boy knew he was right and shot a quick glance to the guards when the bald man approached him. He, too, was several heads taller than Baljeet, and with every step, he got more and more intimidating. »Are you scared, kid? Do you think we’re bad guys trying to kill you?«

_ You look like that, at least _ , Baljeet thought, not daring to speak up. He just knew it was definitely visible how terrified he was.

»Well, kid, let me tell you something«, the bald man stated, so close to Baljeet by now that the boy was able to smell his not so odorant breath. Baljeet tried to look past the tall man, but everyone he saw was nothing but curi­ous and amused - including Buford. He gulped again, awaiting the man’s words.

But they were not quite what he had expected.

»I had a dream, once.«

And when Buford pulled out his trusty concertina, Bal­jeet found himself in the middle of a song.

 

_ »I'm malicious, mean and scary _

_ My sneer could curdle dairy _

_ And violence-wise, my hands are not the cleanest _

_ But despite my evil look _

_ And my temper and my hook _

_ I've always yearned to be a concert pianist« _

 

The man sat down at the piano that more or less coinci­dentally stood in the room, and Baljeet had to admit that he was quite good at playing it.

 

_ »Can't you see me on the stage performin' Mozart, _

_ Ticklin' the ivories 'til they gleam? _

_ Yep, I'd rather be called deadly _

_ For my killer show tune medley. _

_ Thank you, 'cause way down deep inside I've got a _

_ dream.« _

 

_ »He's got a dream, he's got a dream« _ , the other prison­ers were singing along.

 

_ »See, I ain't as cruel and vicious as I seem. _

_ Though I do like breaking femurs, _

_ You can count me with the dreamers. _

_ Like everybody else, I've got a dream.« _

 

The man with the many tattoos took over now, intro­ducing some of the other people in the room.

 

_ »Tor would like to quit and be a florist, _

_ Gunther does interior design, _

_ Ulf is into mime, Attila's cupcakes are sublime, _

_ Bruiser knits, Killer sews, Fang does little puppet _

_ shows, _

_ And Vladimir collects ceramic unicorns.« _

 

»What about you?«, he asked, turning to Baljeet.

»I am sorry, me?« What was the man talking about?

»What's your dream?«

Baljeet realized what the man was hinting at.

»No, no, I apologize. I… I will not sing!« With Phineas and Ferb, or even Buford, that was no big deal, but alone, in front of these still quite intimidating men?

But these men did not seem to be happy with his reply, raising their fists - and Baljeet realized he had no other choice.

 

_ »I have dreams like you, yes, really, _

_ But they are more scholarly. _

_ An A+ in every class is what I need. _

_ All my friends say I am smart, _

_ My intellect sets me apart, _

_ And in no time, I will be Doctor Baljeet.« _

 

The men cheered, and the boy was more than relieved they seemed to be pleased with his spontaneous singing. His eyes turned to Buford, who was standing on a table by now. Of course, his friend also wanted to take a verse.

 

_ »I've got a dream, I've got a dream. _

_ An endless supply of some good ice cream _

_ To eat with my awesome dad _

_ Outside this idiotic shack. _

_ To get him out of here, yeah, that’s my dream!« _

 

Once again, the men cheered, and Baljeet watched ev­eryone but himself continue singing. He still felt awk­ward in this room, surrounded by all these men who must be in prison for a reason, after all. Yet they all seemed to have a lot of fun, and he doubted anyone would be pay­ing any attention to him in the first place - but Baljeet was mistaken about the last part, because now, some of the men picked him up with ease, wanting him to be a part of the song again.

 

_ »He's got a dream, he's got a dream, _

_ They've got a dream, we've got a dream, _

_ So our differences ain't really that extreme. _

_ We're one big team. _

_ Call us brutal, sick, sadistic, _

_ And grotesquely optimistic, _

_ 'Cause way down deep inside, we've got a dream.« _

 

After this, they put him back down, but still repeated the verse _ »I’ve got a dream« _ . Baljeet sighed. Had Buford completely forgotten about their mission? He was still busy with the song, and the Indian boy realized he would have to go on alone for now. So he followed the sign leading to the visiting room, walking past a guard who was watching the musical number with his still unmoved stare - but just like everyone else, he paid no attention to the small boy hurrying away.

Walking through the hallway without a sign of Buford following him, Baljeet became more and more frustrated. For all he knew, Phineas and Ferb were either dead be­cause of the space-time continuum’s reaction to the mal­functioning teleporter, or trapped in a world beyond this planet - and all Buford could think of was singing and eating! The bully really got on his nerves sometimes. And what kind of prison was this anyway? He had ex­pected it to be a lot more... well, strict. But the staff was probably used to such events by now and adjusted ac­cordingly – after all, Danville was widely known for its spontaneous musical numbers. How good for the prisoners.

Eventually, Baljeet arrived in a room that was com­pletely empty save for several tables and chairs for the prisoners and their visitors to sit on. There were also more guards than in the common room, supervising the conversations, most likely. The boy looked around, but the only people vaguely looking like they could be Bu­ford’s father were either already talking to somebody or too intimidating for Baljeet to approach.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind himself and turned his head, only to find Buford walking over to him with a half-eaten sandwich in his hands.

»Really, Buford?« _ First you are making us lose time by spontaneously causing a musical number, and then you have the nerve to buy food.  _ Impressive.

»I told you I was hungry«, the bully argued, stuffing the remaining half of the sandwich into his mouth and swallowing the entire thing. »Now, why are you still standing here? Come on!« He headed straight to a table occupied by a small, glasses-wearing man with dark brown hair, a mustache, and the remains of a shaved beard. The man wore a black-and-blue sweater vest and a light blue shirt and was most likely a visitor, considering how he really did not fit into this place.

But Buford confidently approached him with a wide grin on his face. »Dad!«

Even after everything that had happened today, this was still the turn of events Baljeet had definitely expect­ed the least. How could _ this _ be Buford’s father?

The man had stood up from his seat to be hugged by his son. »Buford! What a surprise to see you - hey, champ, careful, you don’t want me to choke, do you?«

»Sorry, Dad«, Buford laughed, loosening his grip on his father.

The man chuckled, which made his mustache wobble in a funny way. »It’s no big deal, champ. In fact, it’s great to see how you are getting stronger every time! Something you got from your mother.«

That made Baljeet realize something. It was only logi­cal that this man, whose only similarities to Buford were hair color and being, in this case, at least a little chubby, was his father. After all, the bully had gotten most of his traits - voice, nose, body shape, and almost everything else - from Biffany, who basically looked like a female adult version of her son.

Then, the man’s eyes rested on Baljeet. »Is that boy with you?«

»Oh, yeah!«, Buford nodded. »Dad, that’s my nerd, Baljeet.«

»Greetings… Mr. Van Stomm?«, the Indian boy spoke up, offering a hand. At least he was much less intimidat­ed by Buford’s father than by just about everyone else in this building.

»Greetings to you as well, Baljeet. And my name is Bernard, but feel free to call me Bernie!« The man gladly shook his hand - much less forcefully than Buford, the boy noticed with relief.

»We are here because we need your help, Mr. … Bernie«, Baljeet explained as they sat down before Bu­ford could start talking about something unimportant. »You see…«

And then he told him everything that had happened.

»Buford, you used my code?« Bernard was surprised and even slightly shocked and upset about that. »I told you not to do that, you know what can happen if some­one finds out.«

So the planet-scanning code from earlier had actually been that of Buford’s father, and not the bully's own cre­ation. Baljeet felt relieved about that: he had been unable to stand the thought of Buford actually being this kind of intelligent. For whatever reason, his friend had merely learned the code his father had written. The reason Bernard was here, Baljeet remembered.

»It was an emergency!«, Buford defended himself.

And for once, Baljeet agreed with him: »We really need to find our friends, Bernard. Please, you have to help us!«

»Of course I will«, the man nodded. »What were their names again?«

_ Is that important? _ , Baljeet wondered, but told him any­way.

Buford’s father scratched his chin thoughtfully. »Phineas… that’s Linda’s son, no?«

»Yes«, Baljeet confirmed, and then verbally wondered how that could possibly matter to the situation.

»Don’t question my dad«, Buford warned him, but Bernard shook his head.

»He has every right to ask that, Buford. You see«, he said to both of them, »The very machine you described had already been there once before.«

»Yeah, in the beginning of summer«, Buford agreed. »They told me about that earlier today.«

That was new to Baljeet. »You were with Phineas and Ferb today already?«

»Well, duh. But I thought teleporters are lame, so I left and went to your house instead.«

»Either way«, Bernard interrupted them. »I actually mean the one from ten years ago.«

»Dinner bell’s mom is into building things too? Wait until Candace hears about that!«, Buford grinned, but his father shook his head again.

»Not her - Josh. Her first husband.« Baljeet and Buford exchanged surprised looks. »He and I built things in that backyard many times - including this teleporter he never came out of again. One of the reasons I delved deeper into programming«, he added, sighing. »I never had the courage to go after him, so without Josh, I expanded my knowledge of hacking and wrote a program able to scan Earth for a specific person... when it did not find the person I was looking for, I knew she had gone after him… but before I was able to do anything, well... several people mistook my research for evil.«

»Where did that teleporter lead?«, Baljeet asked, not wanting Buford to think about his father’s last com­ment too much.

Bernard shrugged as if his answer was nothing spec­tacular. »A parallel dimension.«

»Huh?«, Buford asked, not able to picture that at all - as usual, Baljeet was all too well aware. How often had he been trying to describe things to him?

Luckily, his father was able to help out this time. »A world identical to ours, but in a different time frame. So, everything is like it is here, but most likely in a different setting - not to mention that you, me, and everyone else also exists in that world with the exact same DNA, but we could be completely different people there, with other names and everything!«

Baljeet smiled. Bernard was talking so excitedly about science that it was not at all far-fetched to imagine hour-long discussions about quantum physics and the meaning of life from a scientific point of view…

»But there are fixed points in time?«, the boy asked out of curiosity.

»Yes«, Bernard nodded, and it was easy to see how he was just as happy about finding an intellectually equal conversation partner. »Everything ensuring that every in­dividual and object existing in our world exists there as well.«

Buford seemed to be grasping that concept too. »So that world’s Me is also the kid of that world’s You and that world’s Biff?«

»Of course«, Bernard agreed, then changed the topic. »Josh traveling into a whole other dimension must have caused a small rift in the space-time continuum, consider­ing the law of energy conservation and said energy being unevenly distributed among the two dimensions. One person’s travel was not enough to actually affect any of the two worlds, however - well, unless someone opened another portal, wherever its destination, in the exact same spot. I suppose this rift was too much to process for your teleporter’s programming, which is why it crashed, but it is basically ninety-nine percent certain that your friends are now in the same place as Josh.« He lowered his voice so the guards would not be able to hear him. »Buford, the code for entering this dimension should still be in one of my folders on the laptop. Use it to follow your friends and bring them back - and Josh as well, if he is still out there.«

»Will do, Dad«, Buford smiled. »See you in half a month?«

»As always«, his father nodded. »I’ll be here.«

 

»Aaand there we go!«, Buford exclaimed. That seemed to be his catchphrase whenever one of his codes was functioning properly: the portal in front of them was looking stable, at least.

»And I _ really _ can’t come with you?«, Candace asked. »They’re _ my _ brothers, you know.«

»Just like _ your _ mom’s the one that’ll stop us from ever getting back here if she makes this thing disappear«, Bu­ford argued. Again, Baljeet had to admit that he had a good point.

»Fine«, Candace sighed. »I’ll do my best - but make it quick, alright?«

»Yeah, yeah«, Buford nodded, suddenly grabbed Bal­jeet, and, along with himself, pulled him directly into the portal.

 


	9. Blood and Water

»Buford, get off me!«

The Indian boy’s voice was the first thing Buford heard after stepping through his friends’, in his opinion, still pretty boring teleporter. It had only become remotely in­teresting with his dad’s code modifications - everything immediately turned a whole lot better if Bernie had something to do with it.

Right now, the bully was making himself comfortable on Baljeet, the boy he had ended up landing on. He al­ways enjoyed teasing his nerd, although he would never dare to seriously hurt him mentally or physically. With a grin on his face, Buford stood up, not without releasing the gaseous remains of everything he had eaten today - right into Baljeet’s face.

The nerd grimaced, yet again letting out an annoyed »Buford!«, causing the bully to chuckle.

»What?«, he asked, acting oblivious.

But Baljeet, now getting on his feet again as well, de­cided not to further discuss this topic and looked around instead.

»I do not think we are in Danville anymore«, he spoke up.

»Well, duh, that was the plan«, Buford reminded him. »Get into this dimension, find Candace’s brothers, get back to Danville. Simple as that.« Although he had to ad­mit that he had no idea how to accomplish this, especially since he couldn’t see anything but trees.

»Buford, there is nothing here!«, Baljeet exclaimed. »This cannot possibly be an alternate version of Danville, it is just a forest.«

But the bully just shrugged. »If my dad says this is where they are, I believe him.« _And you should too_ , he added silently. _My dad doesn’t make mistakes._

»Could he not have been more specific? Where are we even supposed to go now?«

Buford got tired of his friend asking this many ques­tions again. He always did that. And he would continue to do so, unless…

»Buford, wait!« The bully had simply headed off into a random direction. Looking back, Buford saw that Baljeet had not moved at all.

»You wanted me to go, didn’t you? And this direction smells like my uncle’s house, that’s a good sign.«

Baljeet raised an eyebrow as his friend crossed his arms. »The one smelling like ant pheromones or the one smelling like daffodils?«

»Those are my grandmas«, Buford sighed. The nerd knew so much about completely unimportant stuff - mathematics and chemistry and all of that -, but he couldn’t even remember little things about the Van Stomm family! »Get over here and smell it yourself.«

Hesitantly, Baljeet followed him, widening his eyes.

»What?«, the bully wondered. »Got something against rotten eggs?« There was nothing wrong with being a little unhygienic, right? Okay, for Baljeet, it was. Definitely.

»This… this is not…«, the Indian boy realized. Notic­ing Buford’s equally confused and annoyed look, he forced himself to walk forward, freezing shortly afterward.

»Dude, that’s _so_ gross!«, Buford exclaimed as he caught up with the nerd, staring at what had shocked Bal­jeet this much. He, too, was more speechless than any­thing else, as he spotted the corpses of two giant wolves, smoothly killed by arrows, and already victims of the hunger of other animals.

»...maybe we should walk in the opposite direction«, Baljeet suggested, wanting to get away from this place as soon as possible.

But Buford shook his head, surprised the nerd had not come to the conclusion he was currently figuring out. »I’ve got an idea.«

»Well, _that_ is certainly the strangest thing in this world so far.«

»Very funny«, the bully replied, considering giving his friend a wedgie or something similar. But for once, they had better things to do. »But seriously! Those dogs are dead -«

»Obviously.«

»- and they’ve been killed by people. And dinner bell is usually where people are, so let’s follow them!«

»And how do we -«

Buford sighed. Did he suddenly have to do everything himself? _That’s what you get from only watching space movies, nerd. Completely useless in real life – unlike fantasy. Medieval stuff. Where you learn about surviving in the wilderness. And float around with little woodland pix-_

_Dragons. Majestic, manly dragons._

»Well, there’s pawprints, so I’m sure the one dog that ran away will lead us right to dinner bell.«

Baljeet was still skeptical. »What kind of argumenta­tion even is that? You make no sense, Buford.«

»And you’ve got a better idea?«

»No, but -«

That settled it for Buford. He confidently walked deep­er into the forest, following the beast’s steps, and grinned when he heard Baljeet following him. The nerd needed him here.

And, admittedly, this journey would’ve only been half as great without Baljeet.

 

And so, the boys walked through the woods, never los­ing sight of the pawprints leading the way. Eventually, Buford got hungry, like he so often did, and grabbed an oval, yellow fruit from a nearby tree.

»Buford, no!«, Baljeet suddenly exclaimed, snatching it away from the bully.

»Hey!«, he growled, attempting to get it back, but Bal­jeet did his best to keep the fruit away from his friend.

»Do you not know what this is?«

Buford blinked. He didn’t.

»This is a maracanut.«, Baljeet explained with the su­perior tone he always had when describing scientific things. The one that instantly caused Buford to stop lis­tening. »The very foul-tasting fruit, and no, not a nut, Bu­ford, of the maracanut tree which also produces a very sticky sap. It is native to only one place on the entire planet, the Tri-State Area - are you even listening?«

»Did you say something?«, the bully asked, biting into the fruit he had retrieved again by now - and immediately spit it out again. Baljeet simply rolled his eyes as Buford cursed the indeed not at all well-tasting fruit and threw it away from himself. As it landed, it made a splashing noise. Curious, the boys followed the sound and found themselves near a wide river. Their arguing had probably stopped them from having heard it earlier. Only a few feet away from them, there was a rather unstable-looking bridge, with lots of broken planks and holes in it.

»Bingo!«, Buford grinned, discovering more pawprints in the narrow sandy area on the shore. And not only that, but human footprints as well. _Don’t underestimate a Van Stomm_ , he thought.

Baljeet actually looked quite impressed - but of course, his nerd ego prevented him from ever admitting that. He now approached the bridge in order to examine it, care­fully placing a foot on a plank to test its stability.

»We now need to be very careful«, the nerd declared, still busy on the first plank.

But Buford rolled his eyes. Impatient as he was, he thought it would take years for Baljeet to get to the other side like this. If they wanted to find the others, they defi­nitely needed to speed up.

»Hang on«, Buford said - and before Baljeet could wonder what was going on, the bully had already picked him up with one arm and was now running across the bridge as fast as he could, leaping over holes, but without paying any actual attention to the construction. The sud­den force caused many planks to break, even Buford no­ticed, but he always managed to avoid getting stuck or falling down into the river - very narrowly, as Baljeet’s constant screams showed.

When they had finally reached the other side of the riv­er, Buford let his friend down again, much to Baljeet’s relief. Looking back now, there was hardly anything of the bridge left.

»Look at what you did, Buford! You could have killed us!«, the nerd now exclaimed furiously.

»Yeah, but I didn’t, so calm yourself«, Buford shrugged, relaxed about the entire situation. In his opin­ion, this had actually been fun. Baljeet was just overre­acting, as always.

Unbeknownst to them, their friends, actually having been here, had walked further downstream in their at­tempt to save Bue, and also entered this side’s forest sev­eral feet away from the bridge.

Without any traces of them left, Buford shrugged again, simply leading Baljeet deeper into the forest right behind the bridge.

After several minutes of walking, the quite peaceful sounds of nature were interrupted by growls.

»That wasn’t me!«, Buford announced, knowing that Baljeet was suspecting him and his stomach.

As if supporting this statement, a sudden scream came from the same direction. And Buford couldn’t believe his ears.

»Dinner bell!«, he exclaimed, running off to find out what was going on. His friend was in trouble, and no matter what was threatening him, Buford would do ev­erything to save him.

»Buford, wait!«, the bully heard Baljeet behind him, but didn’t pause. If he did, it might as well be too late for Phineas, and he couldn’t risk that! Not when he could punch whatever was attacking him into the face.

Buford soon smelled something unlike anything that reminded him of any of his relatives: blood. Not only that, but he also heard horrible noises making him imag­ine terrifying things he could not possibly let happen to Phineas, so the bully took even bigger steps, balling his fists and getting ready to face the enemy ahead of him.

But when he arrived at the scene, whatever had been here was gone. All that was left was the smell of blood - and its source.

Covered in, and surrounded by, blood was a boy, bare­ly alive. Enormous claws had attacked him and left three long, deep wounds across his face, with more torn-up skin covering its entire left side. The claws had also hor­ribly injured the boy’s left eye, and what the doglike ene­my had done to his left arm, completely separated from his body, wasn’t all too pretty either.

And what made it all worse was that the boy bore an unmistakable resemblance to Phineas.

After allowing his mouth to release the remaining left­overs of his meals into the nearby bushes, Buford showed the arriving Indian boy what he had found - Baljeet faint­ed immediately, but that was quickly taken care of by more or less gently slapping him across the face.

»It… it is not Phineas«, Baljeet managed to say, avoid­ing to look directly at that boy. »Only his… counterpart from this dimension.«

»Our dinner bell or theirs, what does it matter?«, Bu­ford growled. »I’m not letting them get away with this!«

»Buford, you cannot go after these monsters«, Baljeet pointed out, actual worry in his voice. But the nerd seemed to realize that this warning was not very effective, so he added: »At least not before we found the others.«

»Fine«, Buford admitted, realizing his friend had a good point for once. In retrospect, Baljeet always had better ideas than him, now that he thought about it. »But I’m not gonna leave him here like that!«

»But he -«

»Is about to die, I can see that, thanks. I don’t know about you, but Van Stomms don’t leave anyone behind.« Why couldn’t Baljeet stop protesting for once and actual­ly be useful?

»Alright«, Baljeet agreed hesitantly. »How can I help?«

»Get some water«, Buford instructed. In truth, he didn’t know anything about medical stuff, but water seemed like a good solution at this point. Especially the bottle of dis­tilled water Baljeet now produced - for once, his nerdi­ness was good for something!

The bully then spotted a sheath on the injured boy’s belt in which he found a small dagger; unused, by the looks of it. _He didn’t even try to defend himself!_ But the weapon was exactly what he needed now: Buford could easily cut through the boy’s black t-shirt to have a better look at the wound near his shoulder where his arm had been.

All that Buford was able to tell was that it was pretty bloody, and even he knew that the boy shouldn’t lose too much of that. But other than that, he was clueless, and even Baljeet worriedly shrugged when the bully looked at him. He was very aware that he was most likely doing it all wrong, but after using some of Baljeet’s water to clean the wound and wash away blood, Buford used the boy’s t-shirt to bandage the injury in an attempt to stop more blood from spilling out.

Afterward, he did the same with the boy’s face, this time using his own t-shirt to cover the enormous wound, but of course leaving some space near the nose and mouth so the boy was able to breathe. The bully even decided that what was left of the boy’s heavily injured eye would only be causing him pain later on, so he used the dagger again… gaining a horrified look from Baljeet.

The entire time, the boy had been unconscious without making a single sound, but especially without his t-shirt, Buford could tell he was breathing. Baljeet, visibly glad they had almost completely covered the boy’s face, at­tempted to give him some of his water, but Buford stopped him.

»You better keep that - what if we need it later? Per­sonally, I don’t want to run out of water. And it’s not like he won’t survive without it for a while«, the bully said as he looked at the unconscious boy, sounding as positive and determined as possible. More for himself than for Baljeet. »I think we did a pretty good job.«

»I would not have known any other way to help him«, Baljeet agreed, still not fully able to process everything that had just happened. »You… were really quite good, Buford.«

The bully shrugged, but he was just as tense as his friend. This had been the least he had expected to find on the teleporter’s other side.

»Well, I’d say we get moving«, Buford declared. Even he didn’t want to run into more of those wolves by now. »Give me a hand, will you?«

Baljeet nodded, helping his friend get the injured boy onto his back. Buford noticed that he was even lighter than dinner bell, and he was sure that that was not just because of his missing arm. Spotting the pawprints of the wolves that had attacked this boy, he followed their trail, and Baljeet kept every remark to himself.

Even the nerd had realized by now that, for whatever reason, dinner bell and Ferb were going into the same di­rection as the creatures, and none of the two friends liked that.

»I have been thinking«, Baljeet spoke up after a while.

»As always«, Buford commented without any interest in his voice. Really, when had Baljeet _not_ been thinking about something? »Don’t bother telling me.«

»It is about something your father had mentioned earli­er«, the nerd added, and immediately had Buford’s com­plete attention. »He said something about the conserva­tion of energy, and Phineas’ father having caused a dis­turbance by traveling into this world.«

»So what?« The bully was well aware that he wouldn’t be understanding any of his friend’s words any minute now.

»If the sudden disappearance of a person from one of the worlds causes an imbalance, then the death of some­one would as well«, Baljeet continued, but Buford shook his head.

»Lots of people are dying and I haven’t noticed any­thing odd«, he figured.

»That is what I mean«, the Indian boy nodded. »The only way for this not causing a major imbalance between the dimensions is the simultaneous death of both identi­ties.«

» _So?_ «, Buford asked impatiently. He didn’t get any­thing of that and Baljeet knew it.

»That means that no matter what happens, if the Buford from this world dies, so will you.«

Now _that_ was something the bully understood. »But that’s just a theory, right?« The thought of dying any sec­ond now without being able to do anything against it made him uncomfortable.

»Yes«, Baljeet confirmed. »And even if it was indeed true, I could not say whether it applies with both of you being in the same dimension - let us just be glad we saved this boy, just in case.«

_We could’ve killed dinner bell_ , Buford realized, shoot­ing a glance at the boy on his back. _Now let’s hope_ he _’ll make it._

When the bully suddenly heard a rustling noise near them, he turned in that direction, ready to defend Baljeet and the injured boy. »Who’s there?«, he asked, his in­stincts telling him that it had not been a mere forest ani­mal.

And then he had an arrow pointing at him.

Some feet away from them stood a boy a bit taller than Buford, with a distrustful look on his face, mustering the small group.

»I should be asking the same of you.«

With his accent and appearance, he reminded the bully of his nerd, in a strange way, but Buford decided that he definitely preferred Baljeet - who now spoke to the stranger, probably in an attempt to stop Buford from say­ing anything ‘impolite’.

»Please, do not shoot us! We are unarmed and carry an injured person in need of medical assistance.«

Buford rolled his eyes. He _had_ been doing a good job with the boy, he thought. Not to mention that Baljeet was forgetting something essential. »And we’re looking for our friends. Red triangle, green rectangle. Seen them?«

The stranger glared at them for another moment, then nodded.

»Follow me.« And then, he lowered his bow and walked away.

»I don’t like him«, Buford commented, but Baljeet ges­tured him to be quiet, already following the other per­son. _What’s he got?_ , the bully wondered.  _A doctor? Din­ner bell?_

Or maybe just food. Yeah, that’d be nice too.

»I found somebody«, the boy in front of them suddenly declared as he came to a halt.

»Yeah, who?«, Buford asked - but then realized the stranger had been talking _about_ him.

»Buford?« The bully looked past the stranger and spot­ted a group of five people that were all looking at him and Baljeet. One of them was unmistakably dinner bell, then there was Ferb, wearing a green jacket, another Ferb appearing way more badass than the one he knew, and same for the Candace he saw. And then there was a small, chubby boy he couldn’t really identify.

»Hello, Phineas«, Baljeet replied nervously. All those other people seemed to make him uncomfortable. »I hope we are not interrupting anything.«

»Not really«, the badass Ferb shrugged, curiously ob­serving them, then looking at Phineas. »It seems you know these two?«

Dinner bell nodded. »Yeah, they’re friends - but what are you guys doing here?«

»Candace got worried, so we went after you«, Buford explained as if that was the most natural thing in the world. »Oh, and we saved this guy from some dogs«, he said, nodding at the boy he was still carrying. »He proba­bly still needs a doctor though, even my nerd wasn’t much of a help here.«

The two people that looked like Candace and Ferb ex­changed glances, then nodded.

»Alright. Bal, make sure nobody’s sneaking up on us. Bue, take care of this person. We’re taking a break.«

»Wait a minute«, Buford realized, completely aston­ished. »Bal and Bue? Are you trying to tell me that _that’s_ me - and that ‘Jeet is tall and badass in this world?« This dimension’s Baljeet had already disap­peared into the forest again. »I knew my dad said they’d be different from us, but _that_ ?«

»Calm down, Buford«, Baljeet spoke up, but it was easy to see how the fact that this intimidating boy was him in this dimension fascinated him. »We have got more important things to take care of.«

»Fine«, the bully sighed, reluctantly setting the injured and bandaged boy down so that this weak excuse of him­self could help him. The others were getting closer as well, wanting to see what was going on. »Oh, and dinner bell, I doubt you wanna see that.«

»Why not?«, the redhead asked, sounding unusually frustrated. »It’s not like I can’t take a little blood!«

»I believe he is right, Phineas«, Baljeet pointed out, but the boy still shook his head.

»I can handle it, really«, he insisted.

 _He’s almost more stubborn than me_ , Buford thought, then shrugged. If dinner bell wanted to see this barely alive version of himself, then it wasn’t Buford’s problem if he couldn’t take it after all.

»Don’t say we didn’t warn you«, the bully commented.

After a nod from the Ferb from this world, Bue knelt down next to the boy whose face was completely covered by Buford’s t-shirt. The chubby boy carefully unraveled it, revealing the t-shirt to be more and more bloodstained the closer he got to the person’s skin.

Buford watched Phineas closely during the process, wanting to see his reaction. When it seemed to dawn on him who the person under this t-shirt was, the redheaded boy widened his eyes in shock, unable to take them off the injured boy or move at all, and even Ferb covered his mouth. The greenhead’s look-alike seemed unmoved, but it was easy to see how he was trying very hard not to re­veal any of his true feelings. Bue gulped, and when the Can­dace of this world let out a scream with tears in her eyes, Buford began to realize that maybe, just maybe, they should have warned her as well.

 


	10. Scores to Settle

»What did you do?«, Can nearly yelled. Her voice was shaking, she was trying to hold back tears, and she was failing at that. She glared at Baljeet and Buford as if ev­erything was their fault.

»We saved his _life_ «, Buford protested at an equal vol­ume.

»Then why didn’t you do it faster?« There was frustra­tion in her voice.

Fern had heard enough. »Can, calm down -«

»I’m not calming down!« It really sounded like the ex­act opposite. »You don’t even know what you’re talking about. He’s my brother, I -«

»...what?«, Fern replied, his surprise clearly visible. »Your brother? But…«

»Don’t tell me you didn’t know that«, Buford scoffed. »Of course they’re related, dinner bell’s got a sister too.«

»Well, I didn’t«, the green-haired boy said sharply, glaring at his sister. He wanted to know what was going on. What she was hiding from him.

And Phineas couldn’t blame him for that - of course, he had been sure about Can having another brother the whole time, but he, too, was quite overwhelmed by the current events, to say the least.

Fern, his voice full of the hurt of feeling betrayed and lied to, continued: »She never told me about having a brother.« He was still looking at Can, but acted like she wasn’t even there.

Her response was a mere whisper: »I thought he was dead.« And with that, she couldn’t take it anymore, ran past the boys, and off into the forest.

Fern’s eyes followed his sister; he was still breathing quite heavily from his sudden aggression. But he had nothing to say now, and there was silence.

Phineas turned to the unconscious boy again. He knew that Baljeet and Buford had already cleaned up most of the mess, not to mention Bue’s attempts on stopping him from losing blood and properly bandaging the wound, but he still felt sick looking at the scene. He had been pre­pared for most revelations about his alternate self, but this? Definitely the last thing Phineas had expected to happen.

»The wounds are deep, but he’ll survive«, Bue an­nounced, filling the silence. »I mean, as long as I can check on him and he gets to rest, of course.« The boy sounded tense, he probably had never dealt with such an extreme injury before - especially with most of his uten­sils, such as herbs, still wet or even completely useless because of that. But he was clearly doing his best.

Fern shook his head, still trying to calm down. He had put a hand onto the scar on his forehead, probably as a gesture supporting how overwhelmed he still was. »We’ve lost too much time already. If we won’t have dealt with the Duke until sundown, we’ll be at his mercy, and I don’t like the sound of that.«

»I dunno, man«, Buford argued. »I’ve got no idea what’s going on here, but I’m pretty sure that there’s no way we can protect that guy in a serious fight or some­thing.«

Baljeet agreed. »It is shortly past noon, we can surely remain here for another hour or two.«

Fern sighed. To Phineas, it seemed like he just was not in the mood to argue. »Fine. I’ve got things to think about anyway.« He tried to put his hands into the pockets of his jacket, but they grasped at nothing, reminding him that Ferb was still wearing it. Ferb quickly took it off, he was dry again by now anyway, and handed it back - to the boy hastily putting it back on and wandering off without another word.

»Is he always like that?«, Buford wondered, but Bue shook his head.

»I’d be upset in such a situation too.«

»They’ll be back to normal in no time«, Phineas agreed. At least he hoped so - he didn’t like seeing his friends upset.

»I really didn’t think he’d be _that_ different from Ferb«, Buford spoke up. »My dad said they’d be, sure, but that guy’s like Ferb’s complete opposite.«

That caught Phineas’ attention. »Your dad knows this place?« Thinking about it, the bully had never spoken about him before. Maybe this world wasn’t all that un­known after all?

»Not exactly«, Baljeet interrupted his best friend who was already opening his mouth. »He merely created the incredibly complex code that modified your teleporter in a way that would certainly bring us here. And because of an earlier incident, he was able to tell us about the char­acter of this alternate dimension.«

»Alternate dimension?«, Phineas repeated. »Well, that would explain the doppelgangers!«

»And the maracanut trees«, Ferb added, gaining a sur­prised look from his brother. Those trees were characteristic of the Tri-State Area – had he really not noticed them at all?

»Oh, spare me that«, Buford replied, which made Baljeet roll his eyes. »Anyway, dinner bell, why don’t you tell us what happened to you guys since this morning? I’m starting to believe that your teleporter wasn’t that lame after all.«

That made Phineas chuckle, and he raised a hand to count on its fingers. »Let’s see… we’ve been attacked by wolves, got kidnapped by strangers, became part of a prophecy, and now we’re on our way to save the world while also trying to get back home.«

»The latter should not be much of a problem«, Baljeet supposed. »The gateway to our dimension is still open, we can - «

»It’s not«, Buford shook his head. »I told Candace to turn it off. Before some bad guy finds it or something.«

Baljeet widened his eyes. »You did _what_ ? Buford, how are we supposed to go back without it?«

»I think it was the right choice«, Bue defended his look-alike. »The Duke could have found it, and then your dimension would’ve been in trouble just as much as ours.«

»Told you!«, Buford grinned, then looked at the chub­by boy. »What kind of bad guy is he?«

»A really bad one«, Bue explained, sounding fright­ened. »He is controlling those wolf monsters, and he killed a whole lot of people, and -«

»...and he kidnapped my brother.« That voice belonged to Can. She had shown up again without having made much of a sound. She looked like she had been crying quite a lot, and her voice was still trembling. The girl had gone off into the direction Bal had disappeared to earlier, and Phineas wondered whether the two of them had met. He was quite positive they were great company for one another in such a situation, now that he knew Bal’s story. Not to mention that boy’s respect towards Can, of course.

Right now, the girl knelt down next to her unconscious brother, who was already bandaged and taken care of again.

»He’ll be fine«, Bue spoke up, and Can just nodded at that.

»Thank you for saving him. All three of you. I owe you something.«

»Anyone would have helped him«, Bue replied.

Buford, on the other hand, was looking at his now blood-stained t-shirt. »Something to wear would be nice.«

That comment caused Baljeet to glare at his friend warningly.

»Just saying«, Buford shrugged. »And I’ll stay shirtless if I have to. Like a _man_ .«

That amused Phineas just as much as Bue and even Can, who managed to crack a smile.

»Thanks, guys«, she said, then looked at Bue again. »...when is he going to wake up?«

»I don’t know«, the boy admitted, visibly frustrated. »But we were able to convince Fern to stay here for an­other hour or so, to give him some rest.«

»Good.« She looked around. »Where did he go, any­way?«

»Somewhere to think about stuff, he said«, Phineas re­sponded.

»That’s all right with me«, Can said, sighing. »Maybe he’ll realize that he overreacted. I just… I never thought I’d ever see Finn again… after the Duke had taken him away when he was just a baby... right after killing my father.«

»That is horrible«, Baljeet whispered, making Phineas think about what Candace would have done in that situa­tion. There was no way she’d have told anyone about it either, he knew.

»Yeah, but he only got those wounds today«, Buford put in. »What’s he been doing the rest of his life, then?«

Can gulped, and Phineas, too, was speechless for a mo­ment. Buford had a good point. And whatever it was, he was certain it was nothing good.

»We’ll find out soon enough«, Can decided, under­standably not wanting to further think about this topic. »For now, let’s just wait until we’re all ready to move on.«

And so they did. Minutes passed, occasionally filled with small talk, and telling Baljeet and Buford how Ferb and Bue had ended up this wet.

After just about an entire hour, it was Bal who showed up. He left no comment about the un­conscious boy, Finn, whose state had not changed much in this hour, thereby supporting Phineas’ assumption that Can had already told him about it earlier.

»When are we going to get moving again? I thought we agreed on defeating the Duke before sundown«, the archer wondered.

Phineas nodded. »We’ll move on as soon as Fern is back.« Merely sitting around had always been boring to him.

He gained a surprised look from Bal. »Is he not with you?«

That, in turn, confused Can. »Not in the past hour. You must have run into him at some point, Bal.«

The archer shook his head, and Baljeet was the next person to speak up.

»If he is not with anyone of us, he must have wandered off alone.«

»He wouldn’t«, Can countered, then said nothing more. It dawned on her, on Phineas, and on most of the others, that yes. Yes, he would. »Alright, fine«, she sighed. »I’ll go look for him.«

»And I will come with you«, Bal proposed. »I… am good at finding trails.«

»I’m not leaving such a big group defenseless, Bal«, she countered, ignoring his unnecessary remark.

But Phineas didn’t like the sound of her looking for Fern alone either. »We all go«, he spoke up. »There’s no point in splitting up, we might lose each other.« In his opinion, the woods around them were looking the same everywhere.

Can frowned, then nodded. After all, she did not want to leave her other brother alone either.

And so they went. As a tracker, Bal was leading the group, with Can following him. Safely in the middle was the still shirtless Buford, carrying Finn, and the others were closely behind him. Ferb was the one bringing up the rear, as the only one besides Can and Bal who was actually carrying a weapon.

»I still don’t get why he would leave us alone like that«, Bue wondered, breaking the silence.

Can shrugged, but her voice made it clear that she was fed up with her brother. »You know him. Always acting like he’s got everything under control, but he knows he needs us, and especially me, for making the best deci­sions. But with his ego, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s thinking that our Chosen Ones here are stealing his spotlight.«

Phineas glanced back at his own brother. _Like me and Ferb_ , he thought. _But like me, I’m sure he knows deep in­side that he’s wrong._

»So he is trying to defeat the Duke all by himself?«, Bue asked, audibly shocked. »But that’s -«

»Impossible«, Can nodded. »However, I know what he’s trying to prove. He’s got a score to settle with the Duke.«

 _So do you_. But she was right, Fern could be quite a stubborn person. If he really had some past experience with the Duke…

Phineas opened his mouth to ask, but was interrupted by Buford. »Guys, I think he’s moving.«

Nobody had to ask him who he meant by that. As he said that, everyone just abruptly came to a halt, turning to him - and more importantly, the boy on his back.

Buford was right, Finn _was_ moving - not much, but through his nostrils, he was sniffing.

»Is he -«, Baljeet began, but Bue shook his head.

»I doubt he’s actually waking up, but there must be something in the air that’s catching his attention.«

»Well, it wasn’t me, I swear«, Buford defended him­self. But that was not necessary - because only seconds afterward, it hit them. A foul, dirty smell; not as disgust­ing as blood, but still reeking.

»Darklings«, Bal announced, immediately trying to find out more. »The wind is carrying their smell to us, so we are in no danger.«

»Unless they’re coming in our direction«, Can remind­ed him, and the archer nodded.

»It is easy to track them now, I will attempt to get more information. If that is alright with you«, he added, asking Can for permission.

»Okay«, she agreed. »We’ll be following you, in case you need help.«

Bal had no problem with that, so he left into the direc­tion of the smell’s source. After giving him a small head start, the rest of the group got into motion again, and as the smell got worse, Finn started twitching. Phineas pitied him - if he had such a good nose that he had been smelling the darklings before anyone else, this must be horrible for him.

They caught up with Bal, who had paused and was now watching the darklings from behind some bushes. There were two of the beasts, and they were walking on a path crossing the kids’ current route somewhat orthogonally. Phineas and the others joined Bal in his hiding place, and the redhead was glad the wolves had not noticed them yet. The archer readied his bow in order to shoot the darkling, and Can grabbed her staff to attack the other one after Bal’s shot.

And then things escalated.

Finn made a growling sound. The darklings turned their heads, spotted the group, and because of their sud­den movement, Bal’s arrow missed them narrowly. Ferb and Can took out their weapons, ready to defend their friends. Phineas noticed that the darklings’ smell was too weak to be the source of the terrible scent that was still in the air - but that mystery solved itself when four more darklings appeared from the bushes all around them. The group had been so focused on the two wolves directly in front of them that they seemed to have missed the other ones.

Instinctively, the friends formed a circle, with the weak and weaponless ones in the center. Buford wanted to join Ferb, Can, and Bal on the outside, but Baljeet reminded him that he was still carrying Finn, so the bully reluctant­ly stayed in the middle.

»Three against six«, Bal mumbled as he was getting an overview of the situation.

»Four«, a familiar voice interrupted them, dashing through the space between two of the darklings with a shining sword in both hands and join­ing the three armed people.

Fern.

»Where have _you_ been?«, Can asked him, not at all hid­ing her frustration. »This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t run away.«

»I was trying to save all of you«, her brother replied, eyeing the darklings closest to him, ready for any attack. »I was just taking a walk a bit away from our camp when I noticed this pack of beasts that was about to find you. You’re lucky the wind’s been blowing away from you, that way I was able to distract them.«

»You could have told us. We were getting worried.«

»And lead them directly to you? No, thanks. I had to get them away from you quickly - and it would have worked if you hadn’t come looking for me.«

»Oh, so it’s my fault now? That’s so typical -«

»Guys«, Phineas interrupted them. He didn’t want to argue with them, but his one word had been enough of a reminder that they had other things to worry about at this point.

Things that were looking not too great for their group.

On Buford’s back, Finn growled again, which made Bal notice something.

»Keep him quiet«, he instructed without turning his back on the darklings. »He is making them aggressive.«

Phineas could see that he was right: the beasts were coming closer, and Fern and the others already lashed out at them in order to keep them away. Once again, Phineas wondered for a brief moment where Fern got his glamorous weapon from, but this was not the time to ask him.

At this short dis­tance, Bal’s bow became pretty much useless, and he completely relied on the armed kids now.

Phineas was clutching his pocket knife, knowing that there were some applications that could help him. But with such a small device, he didn't stand a chance against a single darkling, and again, he realized how trying to help would only result in a bigger problem.

So Phineas could do nothing but watch his brother, who was keeping an eye on two darklings, dodging their clawed attacks and waiting for a good moment to strike back. He was still weakened by the river incident, but nevertheless doing everything in his power to protect his companions.

The boys in the middle crowded closer together in an attempt to give their friends more space, but that also allowed the darklings to approach them even further.

»Ferb!«, Phineas exclaimed as he saw how one of the darklings close to his brother attacked him and got hit by his sword in defense, only to allow the second darkling to strike from a different angle. Ferb dropped his sword and got knocked off his feet, but Phineas wasn’t able to see any blood. His brother must have managed to avoid the beast’s sharp claws, at least. But now he was unable to hold the darklings back - and one of them immediately got through to Phineas and his other weaponless friends, while the other one decided to attack Ferb again.

Then a shrill barking noise cut through the air.

Before they could have used their claws, before they could have seriously hurt anybody, the darklings froze all at once, turning their heads towards that noise for a mo­ment… just to hurry away with lowered tails. Whatever had caused the sound had definitely scared them.

Fern and Can aimed their weapons at the suddenly rustling bushes in the direction of where the sound had come from, ready to protect their friends from whatever monster was going to reveal itself. Meanwhile, Phineas helped Ferb on his feet again, glad to see that he had no injuries save for some scratches.

Out of the bushes came a dog. A dog not taller than the average house cat, with short fur and large ears. A chi­huahua.

»Isn’t that…«, Buford wondered in disbelief.

The dog’s barking cut him off, but Phineas shared his friend’s thoughts. It looked exactly like Pinky, the pet chihuahua of their friend Isabella. Then again, even if Is­abella had somehow followed them here, which was un­likely in the first place, there was no way she would have brought her dog. Which could only mean…

»There you are! Good dog.« A girl with long, black hair appeared from the bushes. She was wearing a gray t-shirt and a ragged khaki skirt. A bow of the same col­or was in her hair, and she managed to look absolutely stunning even with her rather messy appearance. _Isabel­la… almost._

The girl picked the chihuahua up and looked at the group in a way that was rather… amused. »You should be careful, there are darklings out here.«

Fern rolled his eyes and took a step forward, deciding to be the one to speak for the group. »We didn’t need your help to defeat them.«

»I didn’t do anything«, she shrugged. »But without Brain, you’d be dead.«

Brain - that must be the name of her dog.

»I doubt it.« Phineas heard Can’s exasperated sigh at this response of her brother, and he felt the same. Fern was being incredibly stubborn again, even though he just _had_ to know that the girl was right.

»Oh, don’t give me that«, the stranger replied. »Nine kids in the middle of the Duke’s territory. I’m counting an unconscious one, one with a useless bow, four others without any weapons at all, and only three people to defend all of them. Whatever you’re doing here, you’re not going to make it like that.«

Fern tightened his grasp on his sword, but actually tried to remain calm. »We’re from the resistance. And we are going to defeat the Duke.«

The girl scoffed. »You? Please. You cannot even de­fend your group from a bunch of darklings. He’ll get rid of you before you even get to meet him.« She looked di­rectly at Finn. »And whoever got the idea of bringing him along, well done.«

»What is that supposed to mean?«, Can asked sharply, ready to defend him from anything the other girl was go­ing to say.

The stranger rolled her eyes. »You don’t know any­thing, do you? That guy has been working for the Duke for ages now.«

»He was attacked by the darklings«, Baljeet put in, but that only strengthened her belief.

»I don’t care what happened to him«, she replied. »I’m telling you, it was a trap. I wouldn’t put it past the Duke, really.«

»Yeah, and how was he supposed to know that we’d find him? He doesn’t even know we’re on our way to his place«, Buford grinned triumphantly.

Bal agreed. »The only way for him to be aware of us is a darkling telling him about it somehow, and aside from the ones moments ago, we have only encountered three others when we first met Phineas and Ferb«, he said, nod­ding at them. »And those three are dead.«

Just then, Baljeet gulped. »Buford and I only found two corpses«, he spoke up.

And suddenly, all eyes but those of Baljeet, Buford, and the stranger were on Ferb. Phineas, too, was looking at his brother, remembering Jared’s words from hours ago. _»Ferb did kill that darkling with his bare hands.«_

But Ferb shook his head, for once actually showing his emotions. Guilt. »Merely unconscious«, he said, and the remorse in his voice hurt Phineas, who was not used to hearing his brother like this. He realized that their ele­ment of surprise was completely gone, and any kind of trap was Ferb’s fault now. _I wouldn’t have managed to kill it either. And I doubt he wanted to._

»Well, then that’s settled«, Fern declared with frustra­tion and a hint of anger. »Next time anyone here sees a darkling, they’re killing it. Understood?«

»Yeah, but not accepted.« That reply came from the mysterious girl.

»I wasn’t talking to _you_ .«

»Listen«, she said, her tone not allowing any kind of objection. »I’ve been living out here by myself for years, and trust me, I’ve seen some things that would give all of you nightmares. I’ve seen with my own eyes how the Duke creates the darklings, and you’re _not_ going to kill more of them. And do you want to know why?«

»Go on«, Fern responded, hardly impressed by her speech. Phineas was, though, and it looked like the others were as well, bracing themselves for her answer.

»For the same reason your friend here is able to talk to them«, she continued, giving a quick nod to Finn. »They’re people.«

 


	11. Alive

Nobody said a word as they stared at the girl in com­plete disbelief.

»That’s ridiculous«, Fern eventually spoke up, but his voice revealed that he, too, was taken aback.

»We almost never found corpses in the attacked vil­lages«, Can reminded him. »And… why would the Duke need actual prisoners?«

Thinking about it, the stranger’s revelation made perfect sense, Ferb had to admit. Not to mention that now he was even more glad he had not killed the darkling, an innocent person, earlier, even though that had foiled their entire plan. They would find another way to reach the Duke, he was certain of that.

But Fern was still not convinced. »Even if she _is_ right, which I doubt - what do you want to do? You can stop killing them, but we can’t expect the same from their side. We _need_ to fight them, guys.«

Baljeet cleared his throat, and all eyes were on him. Ferb was especially interested in his words; the Indian boy was known for his scientific views on things. »I am with the majority«, he declared. »We need to stop killing the darklings unless absolutely necessary, as killing them does not only reduce the population of this world, but that of ours as well.«

Buford nodded at that - and if he agreed with Baljeet, that had to mean something. »The nerd’s right. He told me all about that earlier. The thing is: both dimen­sions have a certain amount of energy, and to stop some­one’s death from making that physics stuff go crazy, it’s always both versions of that person that die. Somehow.« He shrugged. »At least that’s what the nerd said.«

»Is my dad still there in your world?«, Bue asked his counterpart.

»You bet!«, Buford grinned, and that settled it for Bue.

»Then we’re not gonna kill anyone!«, the boy declared. »Especially not my dad.«

And Ferb believed to see how Buford suddenly started to like his not-as-intimidating counterpart.

»Looks like your group’s turning against you«, the mysterious girl said to Fern, seeming to enjoy that.

»Just leave us already.« Fern was visibly fed up with her.

»Wait«, Phineas put in. »Can’t she come with us?« Was that his friendship with Isabella talking?

»No, thanks«, the girl declined, much to the redhead’s surprise. But Ferb had already quite expected that. »I’ve got nothing to do with the resistance. And the Duke’s no threat to me; I’m not gonna get myself in serious trouble just because you don’t have a good enough plan.«

Well, they couldn’t force her.

Fern just nodded. »You’ve heard her, guys. Let’s move.« And, to the girl, in a dry tone, »It was a pleasure.«

She replied equally dryly, »Likewise.« Just as Fern had turned around to leave, she added: »Nice sword, by the way.«

Fern froze for one short moment, then quickly sheathed his weapon. Without another word, he led the group away from the girl. But when Ferb turned his head to give her one last glance, she was gone.

 

As they walked, the stranger was still on Ferb’s mind, and he supposed it was the same for most of the others. Who was she? What did she have against the resistance? It was more than the fact that they killed the darklings, surely. But he also thought about those beasts, and that was when it hit him. The fourth line of Ivan’s prophe­cy. _‘Creatures given blackened hearts’_ . Had Ivan known about this all along? And if so, what else did he know about the prophecy’s outcome? Did he know which of the brothers would die? _If Baljeet is right, my death would cause Fern’s as well._

Ferb saw how Phineas started talking to Baljeet and Buford, so he took bigger steps in order to understand what they were saying.

»Baljeet, you said something about an ‘earlier incident’ that gave Buford’s dad more information about this world. What was that about?«, Phineas was asking them at the moment.

Buford and Baljeet exchanged a quick glance before the latter gave Phineas an answer. »Well… ten years ago, there was a teleporter similar to yours in your backyard. Mr. Van Stomm had been responsible for the program­ming -«, Buford was looking quite proud as Baljeet said that, »- and… your father went through the portal and never came back.«

»We’re here to look for him, by the way«, Buford added.

Wait, Phineas’ father was here? His actual biological father?

»So it _is_ true!«, the redhead exclaimed. »Some guy from this world already told me. The Duke’s got him.«

Was that what Ivan had been telling his brother earlier? That only supported Ferb’s belief that the blind boy seemed to know a lot of things he was not telling every­body.

»As a darkling?«, Baljeet asked, that possibility horri­fying him.

Phineas shook his head. »I don’t think so. He’s too… special for that.«

Ferb slowed down again, he had heard enough. He could not believe his brother had been hiding such an im­portant thing from him, and more importantly… it was always about Phineas. Ferb had gotten used to his brother always being the one in the spotlight; it was true that he did not actually _want_ to be the center of attention. But still, he hardly ever received any kind of recognition compared to Phineas, and in his opinion, that really was not too much to ask for. Of course, he was happy for his brother, now that he knew his actual father was out here somewhere.

But Ferb still could not help thinking that it should have been _his_ missing parent for once.

The terrain ascended and trees became scarce, reveal­ing a huge hill in front of the group. But what made Bu­ford’s jaw drop and Ferb whistle in admiration was the castle situated on top of it. It was enormous, but not too pretentious. The building, made of gray stone with a hint of rust, looked truly medieval, with several towers and all the other things Ferb remembered from his books. However, he did not spot a flag or any other kind of movement on the walls.

»Firestone Castle«, Can announced. »That’s where we’re going.«

»But how?«, Bal wondered. »There are almost no places to hide here, the Duke will certainly see us com­ing.«

»It’s not like he doesn’t know that we’re coming al­ready«, Fern commented, and Ferb sighed in silence. He knew that, to some extent, it was his fault that the Duke was aware of their arrival, but how had he been supposed to kill a wolf with his bare hands, anyway?

»There should be some kind of road for carriages and other vehicles to reach the castle«, Baljeet considered.

»That’s like handing ourselves to that guy on a silver platter«, Buford argued, and Ferb nodded at that. That would be extremely foolish, especially considering there was no such thing as a carriage to hide in and whatnot. They would be the only living things on that road, and that was more than just a problem. It was certain death.

»I know about some secret tunnels inside the hill«, Fern proposed. »They’ll lead us straight to the castle, and the Duke won’t know what’s hit him.«

Ferb was not the only one to raise an eyebrow at that: Baljeet and Bal did the same and their faces looked al­most identical doing so.

»Yeah, how’d you know?«, the generally skeptical Bu­ford questioned him.

»I’ve been here before«, Fern shrugged and led them to the entrance of what really seemed to be a tunnel. »It’s been a few years, but Can and I’ve used these tunnels from time to time.«

»Well, that’s enough of a reason to me!«, Phineas stat­ed, going after Fern. »And it’s definitely better than the _obvious_ way.«

Ferb still found it a bit suspicious, but his brother was right about the latter part. Maybe these tunnels were se­cret enough for the Duke not to know about them.

 

They were not.

The small but bright flashlight in the pocket knife Ferb had given to Phineas was their only light source, and af­ter some turns, the tunnel led into a wide intersection, with more than five other corridors parting from it. While Fern attempted to determine the right way to the castle, growls came from just about every direction, and it was then that they all knew they had a pretty big problem.

Soon, the area was full of darklings, more than the six from earlier, and Ferb and the others that could drew their weapons.

»Looks like the Duke’s been using this place as a dark­ling lair«, Can commented.

»How was I supposed to know? It wasn’t like that back then, you know that as well as I do«, Fern replied, then concentrated on the rest of his group again. »Alright, ev­eryone. If you really think that girl was right, only kill these beasts if necessary. But they won’t be that merciful to you, so be careful.«

And then they attacked.

Once again, the group formed a circle, but that soon proved useless against such a number of enemies.

»We need to retreat«, Bal spoke up, trying to stab a darkling with an arrow, considering he had no other way to defend himself.

Upon realizing there weren’t any darklings coming from the entrance, Fern agreed. »You’ve heard him. Phineas, you and the others get back out as fast as possi­ble. Can, Ferb, and I will make sure you don’t get harmed.«

Ferb walked backwards as he did what Fern had in­structed, and every time he injured a darkling with his sword, he thought about the person behind this beast. However, soon enough, there were more darklings coming at them than he could keep off, but he didn’t dare to turn back and check on the progress of his brother. From the corner of his eye, Ferb saw that Can and Fern were struggling with similar problems; they would soon stand not even the slightest chance against the wolves anymore. The green stone on his look-alike's sword shimmered in the flashlight's light, and only now did Ferb actually notice the blade's fancy design. How had Fern come into the possession of this weapon? That really was no ordinary sword.

While thinking about the weapon, Ferb was still highly alert, yet he fell for the same trick as before. Trying to fight off a darkling, another one at­tacked his arm, and he dropped his sword. The first dark­ling leaped at him, causing him to fall backwards. The beast pinned him to the ground, not giving him a chance to pinch it, and showed its sharp teeth. Fern and Can were too busy to help him, yet he could hear someone shouting his name… but there was nothing anyone could do to save him. The darkling would just kill him with a bite in the neck, swiftly and almost completely painless. Not as heroic as he had always dreamed his life would end, but if it distracted the darklings long enough for his friends to escape, it was enough for him.

The darkling lowered its head now, and just for one short moment, their eyes met.

For one short moment, time seemed to stand still.

The darkling’s eyes were a dark blue with a hint of gray, like the sea on a stormy night. They turned from ag­gressive into completely perplexed, but with a softness and peacefulness that even made Ferb forget about his surroundings for a moment. He knew these eyes. He knew this person.

And this person knew him.

The moment passed as quickly as it had come when the dark­ling let go of him. He was in no state to move, taken aback by his realization. And then, the darkling howled. From one moment to the next, all other wolves in the room froze and looked at it, just like what the chihuahua had done to them earlier.

»Quick, everyone, let’s get out of here!«, Ferb heard his counterpart from this world say, but he still stared at the darkling he was so familiar with.

Can blocked his view. »Ferb, are you alright? What are you waiting for?« Still, he did not move, nor did he man­age to say anything. There was no way this was possible, and yet… he was absolutely convinced that it was. He heard Can sighing in frustration, and then he felt a pain on the back of his head and everything went black.

 

When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on the ground, and everyone was staring at him - worried or frustrated, or sometimes both. He was outside once more, by the looks of it, and tried to remember what had hap­pened.

And then he did. Her eyes. How she had looked at him. How she had saved them all.

»Where is she?« Ferb was wide awake again. He need­ed to find her, and he saw that Phineas and the others were surprised by the urgency in his voice. The greenhead sat up. Maybe she had followed them outside?

But she was not there.

»Please. Where is she?«, he repeat­ed.

»I just had to save your life«, Can reminded him, an­noyed. »What were you thinking? There were darklings all around you, and you were lying there as if there was no danger at all!«

Fern nodded. »I don’t like the way you were staring at that darkling. Whoever you think you saw there, that’s nonsense. I can’t let you endanger our mission, Ferb. Forget about it.«

»Oh, give him a break, would you?«

Ferb blinked. He had not expected to see Isabella’s look-alike again this soon. And neither had the others, it seemed. But there she was; she must have been sneaking up on them. She had brought her dog as well, and now, the girl walked over to Ferb.

»Ferb, is it?« He nodded. Her next question was sim­ple, and there was no mocking tone in her voice at all. »Who did you see?«

At least _she_ would believe him. He was not so sure about the others, not even Phineas or the other people from his world. But Ferb knew he was right; she had been there. Even though he had no idea how that was possible. He took a breath, only to continue with utter confidence.

»My mother.«

The group fell silent. They all seemed to realize that this was not a topic to joke about, and especially his friends from Danville had every reason to be shocked: nobody had ever mentioned this woman at all, neither Lawrence nor Ferb himself. And even if they had asked, the boy wouldn't have told them a thing. He had some secrets, sure, but his mother was an entirely different topic. Often thought about, but never spoken of. For good reason...

»That’s impossible«, Fern declared at last.

Both girls shot him a warning glance.

He rolled his eyes. »Even if it’s true that the darklings are people...«, he continued, »...it’s still not possible.«

»And why not?«, Isabella’s look-alike asked.

»Because _my_ mother died ages ago. Ferb’s can’t be alive - unless Baljeet is wrong with his double death hy­pothesis.«

»There are always exceptions to the rule«, the Indian boy spoke up, but his voice gave his sudden doubts about Ferb away.

The mysterious girl frowned. »Tell me again what hap­pened.« She was talking to nobody in particular, so Fern took care of that.

»We were using the hill’s tunnels to reach the castle, but then the darklings trapped us in there. They outnum­bered us, and one of them was about to kill Ferb when it suddenly let go of him and howled, which made the other darklings freeze. Ferb wasn’t moving, so Can took care of getting him out, and the darklings didn’t follow us back out­side.«

»Ferb is right«, the girl immediately stated with confi­dence. »She recognized him and saved your lives… but it must really take an immense emotional bond for that to happen, I never thought they could do that. I mean, I’ve been able to recognize some of them, but the other way around… never mind.« She realized she had said too much, and Ferb understood. Like everyone else, she must have lost someone to the Duke. He remembered her re­mark from earlier: » _I’ve seen with my own eyes how the Duke creates the darklings._ « That thought terrified him so much that he quickly let go of it.

»And yet, you are not coming with us.« That was Bal. More of a statement than a question.

»What?«

»You have lost somebody to the Duke, you just said so yourself. We all did - but what makes you not want to save them, now that you have the chance?« A good point, Ferb had to admit.

She hesitated. »It’s not like I don’t want to save them. Just not with _you_ .«

»What’s wrong with us?«, Bue asked, slightly upset about that.

The girl glared at Fern as she spoke. »The resistance is full of cowards I don’t want anything to do with«, she de­clared. »Your people could have saved my friends when we were trying to escape, but they ran away as soon as they saw a single darkling. Don’t make me go into detail, it wasn’t pretty.«

The resistance’s leader broke the silence that had re­sulted. »The way I see it, you’re more of a coward than any of us.« His voice was strangely bitter, as if she had made him remember something he had been pushing aside for a while.

And to Ferb’s surprise, Phineas agreed with him. »He’s right. I mean, we’re not particularly strong, or numerous; we’re just a bunch of kids. But kids that already made the impossible real so many times, even those of you that weren’t there when we built things in our backyard. We’ve made it this far, and we _are_ going to win this bat­tle. The darklings just gave us something even more worth fighting for than just freedom, and no matter what happens, we’re not going to give up. The only coward I see when I look at you all is a girl who has the opportuni­ty to be a part of something amazing, yet doesn’t believe in us. But I believe we can do it, and I know you guys are with me on that.« He looked at the girl that had been watching him the entire time. »And you should believe in us too.«

She sighed. »You’re really convinced you can do it, aren’t you.«

Phineas nodded, and Ferb joined in, as well as some of the others.

»...fine. We’ll come with you. If that makes you hap­py.«

»Welcome to the group, then.« Fern did not look abso­lutely satisfied with this turn of events, but he had to get used to it now. »What’s your name, anyway?«

»Call me Is-«

»-hmael?«, Ferb suggested, only to gain bewildered looks from her and the rest of his group. Only Phineas seemed to have gotten the joke and grinned.

»Izzy«, she corrected him. »Just call me Izzy.« She nodded at her dog. »And that’s Brain.«

They introduced themselves to her as well, but she did not seem to care much about that. She probably just wanted to get this entire journey over with.

When they were done with that, Fern asked a question. »Alright, everyone. What now?« Of course, they could investigate the tunnels again. Brain would keep the dark­lings away, and they would be able to actually reach the castle. Personally, Ferb wanted nothing more than to search for the darkling that was his mother, his actual mother… it had been so many years, but to this day, he had always missed her. After all, he had actual memories of her...

A third option revealed itself when somebody groaned in pain. The somebody on Buford’s back.

Bue reacted immediately. »He’s waking up!«, he ex­claimed. »Guys, put him down.«

Baljeet and Ferb helped Buford do exactly that, but then Bue shooed them a couple of steps away. After all, he did not want the boy to freak out upon seeing so many people he did not know.

Ferb was still able to see what was happening: Finn was waking up indeed. Slowly, he opened his one re­maining eye, and as soon as he saw unfamiliar faces, he widened it, trying to use his arms to escape the strangers by moving backwards. It was only then that he noticed that he only had one arm left, and upon realizing that, Finn started shaking. » _Please don’t hurt me_ «, his entire body seemed to say, and he was absolutely terrified.

»Hey!«, Bue greeted him, keeping his voice relatively low in order not to scare Finn even more.

The boy flinched, but did nothing else.

»We don’t mean you any harm«, Bue continued. »Your name is Finn, right?«

Finn nodded slowly, and Bue kept his well-meaning smile.

»How do you feel?«

Now, Finn stared at him perplexedly, as if he had not understood the question, and that seemed to make him even more afraid. Was he scared of talking, or of not be­ing able to give a reply? Or both?

»Let me try«, Can proposed, her voice dry but confi­dent. He was her own brother, after all. And Bue let her. »Finn«, she said to her brother, »You were injured by darklings.« He flinched again as she said that, and they took that as confirmation. »Why did that happen?«

»I-I…«, he finally replied, his voice shaking. He sound­ed just like Phineas, but so much more… hopeless. »I… I a-angered the M-master, I…« But that was all Finn said. He stopped after that, lowering his head, as if waiting for somebody to punish him.

Can gulped, and it was easy for Ferb to imag­ine how this must be like for her. He was actually quite certain it was not that different from the emotions he now felt. Pity. Anger towards the Duke. »Your Master«, she repeated, and Finn nodded with his head still low. »Tell me more about him.« She was scared of the answer, and so was Ferb.

»Do you think that is a good idea?«, Bal asked her.

»I just… I need to know what happened«, Can nodded, then awaited Finn’s reply.

»I-I serve him«, the boy stammered, still afraid. More of the Duke than of them, Ferb knew. »I always d-did. He saved my l-life and… and fed me and trained me and I did what he said because if not then he’d p-punish me and not give me food and hurt me and he wanted me to obey so I did and then I did not and then he did _this_ and… and…«

»Why didn’t you defend yourself?«, Buford interrupted him. »You’ve got a dagger, don’t you?«

Finn’s words were a mere whisper now. »I-I deserved it… I disobeyed, I needed p-punishment.«

»Nobody deserves something like this«, Can argued. »Especially not you. Whatever he told you is nonsense, alright? He did not save you, he took you from your fami­ly when you were little. And all the things he did to you… they aren’t justified just because you did some­thing he did not want you to. He wronged you, Finn. I know it’s hard, and I know that you still need to process everything, but we don’t have much time. The Duke has done horrible things to many people, and even though he might have told you otherwise, I know that deep inside, you know it’s true. We’re here to put an end to his reign, and you are welcome to join us.« Can’s emotions had overwhelmed her, and it was the big sister in her talking. But Ferb knew she was right, and the others did as well. But what about Finn?

There was a short silence as the boy thought about her words. »They told me«, he eventually said. »That… that he’s b-bad…«

»Who?«, Can asked, but it was Izzy who answered her.

»The darklings, of course. After all, he can talk to them.«

Finn nodded, and to Ferb, it seemed like he began to realize that he really had nothing to fear from their group. They must be a welcome change in his life that had been ruled over by his tyrannic master. »T-they remember things«, he assured them. »B-but they are scared of the M-master, like m-me, because he p-punishes them if they don’t fight…«

That made Ferb widen his eyes. If the Duke had found out about what a certain darkling had done earlier… »I need to find one of them«, he declared.

Fern shook his head. »Oh no. You’re not going back in there. Not now. And especially not with him.« There was more than strictness in his voice: the last sentence included a tinge of panic. Was he that worried about Finn leading them into a trap?

»It is too dangerous«, Bal agreed. Neither he nor anyone else seemed to have noticed Fern's sudden emotion. »And if you were mistaken -«

»I’ll come with you«, Izzy interrupted him. »Even if _they_ don’t believe you, I do. And with Brain, you’ve got nothing to fear in there.« Fern sighed at that, Ferb noticed.

»I’m with you too.« That was Buford. He had always been loyal to Ferb. »I know you’d do the same for me, dude. I’m not leaving you hanging.«

And so, Ferb turned to Finn again. He was glad there were people actually believing in him and wanting to help him in such a dangerous situation, but he wondered why Phineas had not spoken up. Did he want to give Ferb the spotlight for once? Was he aware of the threats lurk­ing in the tunnels and his own helplessness regarding that? Or did he have other plans altogether? Whatever it was, it was his brother’s choice. Just like it was Finn’s choice now. »Can you help us?«

The boy nodded, albeit hesitantly. »I… I can find a specific d-darkling, yes.«

»And do you want to?« With the little free will he must have had his entire life, it was best to introduce him to that concept now.

»We’ll make sure you stay out of trouble!«, Buford added. »I mean, what are friends for?«

»What… what are… f-friends?«, Finn asked. He still seemed to be reluctant when it came to asking questions. The Duke had most likely not approved of those.

»Someone who’s there for you, no matter what hap­pens«, Buford explained, and he looked at Baljeet as he said that. »Someone who doesn’t really mean it when they get mad at you.«

»Someone who won’t punish you for anything«, Can put in.

»And you… you are my... f-friends?«

Ferb nodded, and so did Buford and Can, and almost everyone else. Even Fern gave in, and when Izzy noticed that she was the only one but Bal not doing so, she managed to crack a smile and nodded as well. It was hard for her, Ferb knew, and he shot her a thankful glance. She looked away as soon as she saw that.

»...okay«, Finn said, and Ferb believed to hear a hint of his own brother’s usual tone in the boy’s voice. Happi­ness. Hope. »I’ll do it.«

Ferb genuinely smiled at him now. He was eternally grateful for Finn’s reply - he was so close to finding his long-lost mother now… she was near, and their new companion would help him find her.

And Finn smiled back.

 


	12. Arthur

When they eventually set out, Buford looked at his best friend, Baljeet.

»You sure you don’t want to come?«, he asked. He was actually quite upset about that - the bully enjoyed his friend’s company more than he liked to admit.

»I… do not want to be in the way«, the nerd replied, and Buford felt anger coming up from inside himself. He _knew_ Baljeet had other reasons: it was incredibly like­ly he didn’t actually believe Ferb, something Buford couldn’t understand. Ferb had always been a very reliable person, and if he said he had seen his mother, it was true. The bully had thought that especially after what Baljeet had learned about the Van Stomm family, he would be more trusting in such matters… but apparently not.

»Fine!«, Buford then exclaimed in frustration, but de­cided to leave it at that. This wasn’t about him and Bal­jeet, this was about Ferb and his mother. And Finn.

So Buford turned to the boy who was currently at­tempting to stand up with Can’s help. He was still quite wobbly on his feet, understandably, and he had to get used to missing one arm and eye. »Need a ride?«, Buford offered. »I’ve been carrying you around all day, I’ll do it some more.«

But Finn declined. »I… I can walk.« He tried to, failed to keep his balance, and would have fallen to the ground if Can had not grabbed him quickly enough. »I _can_ «, he insisted, in a voice so determined that it reminded Buford of Phineas.

And said dinner bell supported him now. »He can do it«, the redhead nodded with a motivational smile. »Just take your time and help him a bit, I’m absolutely sure he’ll figure it out!«

»Carry him if you’re losing too much time«, Fern added, and that wasn't just an order, but a request. Someone here cared a lot more about Finn than they let on about.

Still, Buford only shrugged at that. He’d help his new friend if he really couldn’t walk another step, but other­wise there was no reason to if Finn wanted to do it by himself. Although, frankly, he had enjoyed carrying that boy around.

Now that they were leaving, Buford already started missing the extra weight on his back. He was the last one in line, directly behind Finn in case the boy needed help. Brain, the chihuahua, was running among their group, not really seeming to care about anything. He was a dog, af­ter all. His owner Izzy was walking right next to Finn, helping him keep his balance and supporting him if he needed it. Looked like she was becoming social after all. Or was she only helping Finn to make up for not having helped her friends when they got turned into darklings? An honorable cause, in that case. _Or maybe she's just crushing on him. Like she does in our world._

Finn was actually doing quite well in spite of tilting a bit to the right, where he had more weight to carry than on his injured side. He was not asking for any help at all, and apologized every time Izzy had to assist him. She always reminded him that saying sorry wasn’t necessary, and then he apologized for exactly that.

And so it continued until it got on Buford’s nerves. So he attempted to distract everyone by, well. Talking.

»Am I the only one finding it pretty suspicious that Fern knows about these tunnels?«, he wondered just as soon as they entered that very place. He assumed that Finn would only start looking for Ferb’s mom when they had reached the crossroads from earlier.

»I wouldn’t think about that too much, honestly«, Izzy shrugged, but her voice clearly revealed how she wasn’t too fond of the resistance’s leader. »I don’t get him ei­ther. He’s probably just trying to get you to like him, re­ally. It doesn’t look like he’s being a great leader to me.«

«Leaders are never appreciated or needed until you don't have them«, Ferb commented from the front. Carry­ing the pocket knife that was also a flashlight, he was leading the way in the search for his mother, and he had not said much of a word since leaving the rest of the group. Even less than usual, that is. What had existed un­til this sentence was a silence unnatural to Ferb: not wise and knowing, but tense. And Buford couldn’t blame him in this situation, really. Had _his_ mother been turned into a monster by a mad sorcerer… he’d so be punching the heck out of him.

»That’s all well and good«, Izzy replied. »But if you ask me, Fern’s lacking a whole lot of leadership quali­ties.«

»Like what?«, Buford asked. He had always enjoyed gossiping.

»Like all the stuff his sister’s got. _She_ knows what she’s doing, he doesn’t.«

»And yet _he_ is the leader.« The subliminal message was clear. Ferb actually supported his look-alike’s role and seemed to be bothered about them talking badly about him.

»Yeah, we get it, you’re on his side because he’s basi­cally you«, Buford countered. »But you’ve got to admit that he isn’t all that great.«

»That’s not what I meant«, Ferb replied unusually sharply, leaving even Buford stunned. But the greenhead was not able to explain himself - because their group had reached the crossing by now. And Finn, who had kept out of the conversation until now, spoke up.

»...is it my turn?«

»Looks like it«, Buford nodded, but he was definitely not done with the discussion yet. He’d continue as soon as this thing here was solved. »Go on, impress me.«

Finn flinched at that - had it reminded him of the Duke? That’s not what Buford had wanted to happen… oh well, better keep silent before making it worse.

»What do you need to find her?«, Izzy asked Finn, dis­tracting the boy from his memories.

Finn thought about that for a moment. »A name.«

And Ferb did not hesitate at all. »Melody«, he said with the voice of someone that had not spoken this very name for a long, long time. »Melody Fletcher.«

That had a nice ring to it, Buford thought. If his mother was as great as Ferb made her seem, he’d definitely enjoy her company. Then again, she was a dog at this point, so they probably wouldn’t be having much actual interaction. He couldn’t talk to animals, after all.

Finn could, though, for whatever bizarre reason, and he was making use of that now. What came out of his mouth were completely inhuman growls, and whatever he was saying with that, he seemed happy doing so. From what Buford could tell, Finn was not stuttering at all, or afraid of anyone’s reactions. _Maybe he’s a werewolf_ , the bully thought. _If I were one, I’d be talking to dogs all day, too._

The group went completely silent as everyone was waiting for something to happen. Finn’s growls echoed through the tunnels, causing Izzy to wonder whether the Duke would notice that.

But Buford just shrugged. »Even if, he already knows about us anyway.«

Finn shook his head at that, and Izzy had to support him once again since that had made him lose his balance. »The M-master doesn’t understand them«, he explained. »And they don’t g-get him… he needs me to communi­cate with the darklings.«

Well, that sure made things easier. »Fern’s gonna love that news«, Buford grinned - but nobody was paying any attention to him. Instead, everyone was watching Izzy’s dog Brain, who was perking up his large ears be­fore running off into one of the dark tunnels.

Buford was about to ask whether someone should go after him, but Izzy beat him to it. »He heard a darkling.«

Finn nodded. »...it’s her.«

The bully looked at Ferb. He was completely tense now, mentally preparing himself for meeting that beast. His mother.

Brain came back several moments later, constantly turning back while waiting for the creature behind him to catch up. And then, the darkling emerged from the shad­ows.

It looked like any other darkling Buford had seen be­fore: tall, dark… and strangely, for once, not at all terri­fying. There was a warmth in its eyes that the other beasts had lacked; the knowledge that someone it had known as a human was there. It was limping, too - the Duke must have punished this darkling indeed. And now, it - no, _she_ \- had come to a halt, eyeing the group with a hint of suspicion, but then, her eyes rested on Ferb. For a moment similar to the one not too long ago, they were staring at each other, but this time, without the distur­bance of a battle around them. The darkling let out a sin­gle, short growl, wistfulness in the sound.

Buford didn’t want to break this kind of magical si­lence, so he just shot a glance at Finn - who was already working out the translation. He seemed confused, as if he had understood something, but without knowing what it meant.

»What…«, Izzy began, whispering.

And Finn, equally in awe, replied with one single word; the translation of what he had heard.

»Arthur.«

»I think she’s mistaking him for someone else«, Buford commented at that, but Izzy shook her head as she nod­ded at Ferb.

He was breaking out in tears.

Neither Buford nor Izzy knew what to say or do, and so they merely watched Ferb as he stormed over to the dark­ling and hugged her, burying his face in her fur. It was an odd sight, knowing that this beast was actually his human mother, and yet, it was incredibly beautiful. Even Buford noticed a tear or two appearing on his face, but he quickly wiped them away.

It looked like Finn was having trouble deciding whether or not he should translate the most recent growls, and it was then that Buford realized how new this must be for him: actual affection between people, some­thing the Duke had always kept from him. »...I love you«, the boy eventually whispered, but with an uncertainty that revealed that he really did not know what that meant - other than being something incredibly positive.

And Buford genuinely smiled at the scene playing out in front of them. »Dude, I think Ferb already knows.«

 

They watched the interaction between Ferb and his mother for some more moments, before the boy eventual­ly let go of her. »We should return to the others«, he de­cided, having regained his voice. Ferb still sounded over­whelmed, but he had every reason to.

When they walked back through the tunnel they had come from, it was Izzy leading the way now. Buford was still walking behind everyone else as he watched the inter­action between those in front of him: this time, it was Ferb’s mother, Melody, helping Finn keep his balance. They were both letting out growls almost the entire time, and even Brain joined in. Finn seemed much more confi­dent by now, leaving Buford to wonder what he was talk­ing about with the two canines. Meanwhile, Ferb was walking on his mother’s other side, observing her injured right front leg and making sure she was well. Buford was getting bored again, but he didn’t want to interrupt the conversation between Finn and the dogs, so he more or less carefully made his way through all the way to Izzy.

»So, what’s up?«

She seemed surprised about someone wanting to talk to her. »Nothing.«

Yeah, okay. They really _were_ just walking. He nodded at Ferb’s flashlight-knife Izzy was carrying to lead the way. »Well, what do you think of that? Pretty sweet tech­nology, huh?«

»I guess so. But it’s not gonna defeat the Duke’s mag­ic, is it?«

Buford shrugged. »Dinner bell’s gonna find a way for that to happen, you’ll see! He’s done lots of great stuff.«

»Well, consider me impressed if he actually manages to save us all.«

The bully snorted. »In our dimension, he wouldn’t need to do that to impress you.«

Izzy raised an eyebrow. »What’s that supposed to mean?«

»Well, the You from our world’s seriously crushing on him. Has been doing that all summer long. And he doesn’t have a clue. Everyone knows, buuut we’re not gonna tell him, that’s ruining the fun.«

»I _guess_ he’s a nice guy. But he’s not my type, really.«

»And who is?«, Buford grinned.

»That’s none of - look, we’re almost there.«

Buford wanted to continue their conversation, but Izzy was right. They had reached the tunnel’s exit and would meet the others pretty soon. The girl turned the flashlight off, thrust it into the bully’s hand, and sped up. Mo­ments afterward, he could hear her announcing their re­turn to the rest of the group. All he did was following her, completely baffled, and he shrugged when Ferb shot him a questioning glance. Why was everyone always as­suming things were his fault? Admittedly, they usually were, but still. He found it pretty unfair.

»So… that really is his mother?«, Baljeet still sounded skeptical as the darkling came into view. She seemed wary around the strangers, but much less than when she had met the others.

Ferb nodded, and Bue spotted her injury immediately.

»I’ll take care of that«, he offered, and Ferb looked quite unsure. Wrongly, Buford thought.

So he supported his look-alike. »Come on. He won’t harm her, you know that.«

Still reluctant, Ferb nodded at last. Finn told the dark­ling in her tongue what was going on, and unlike her son, Melody did not refuse as Bue approached and touched her to take a look at her leg. When he put pressure on a certain spot, she winced and snarled, causing Ferb to shoot her and Bue a worried glance and even attempt to stop him. So Buford decided to hold his friend back be­fore things escalated. »Relax, man. She’ll be fine, okay?«

»It’s nothing«, Phineas agreed, then looked at his friends from Danville in a bit of confusion. »...do you think I should, I don’t know… introduce myself? I mean, I’m his brother, I should probably…«

But Buford shook his head. »She’s not gonna under­stand you unless Finn translates it. And I don’t think you want to bother him with complicated family stuff right now.«

The redhead seemed to accept that reply and turned to Finn. »Can you tell her we’re friends, at least?«

Finn responded with a growl, to which Melody replied, and they took that as a yes.

»Anyway«, Fern declared. »We’ve lost some time, but if we head off now, we can still be done with this by sun­down.«

Bue shook his head. »I've almost finished«, he stated as he bandaged Melody’s leg. »It’s not broken, but giving her a little rest would help a lot.«

»Finn is exhausted as well«, Izzy added, and beat the boy to it when he wanted to say something. »Maybe ex­haustion has never been a valid reason for the Duke to stop you from doing things, but it’s definitely a good one here. And it’s not like we’re in much of a hurry.«

That visibly frustrated Fern. »Of course we are. And I’d like some rest too, but I’m not getting it either. We’ve got a world to save, and as your leader, I’m the decision maker here. And if I say we’re leaving now, we are. Is that clear?«

Baljeet cleared his throat just as Buford wanted to start an argument with Ferb’s annoying look-alike. »Perhaps they are right. It seems to be strategically favorable for us to leave, instead of having finished this, at sundown, aside from the factor of exhaustion that should not be ig­nored either.« Having gained everyone’s attention by this surprising suggestion, he continued: »If we depart at sun­down, we will reach the castle during the night, and should be able to defeat the Duke in his sleep, provided he does sleep at night.«

Finn nodded at that, and Bal approved as well. »That could work. With our canine companions, the darklings should be no threat to us, and the Duke will not expect us to strike in the middle of the night.« He looked at Fern, his respected leader. »I agree to his plan, it might give us an advantage.«

»I’m with the smartasses«, Buford joined in. As much as he wanted to storm the castle, he knew that a more subtle approach was a better idea.

Everyone was waiting for Fern’s reply now. He sighed and still seemed reluctant, but eventually agreed. »Al­right. If delaying the rest of our journey helps you re­cover and gives us an advantage in battle, I’d say that we should give it a try. While we’re at it, it’s best for all of us to get some rest before the big finale. We’ll be leaving at sundown, so make sure you’re ready by then.«

Minutes later, everyone had done as Fern had instruct­ed. Melody and Finn were fast asleep, but would be im­mediately ready if needed. The members of the resistance were gathering together, simply resting or talking about things Buford didn’t really care about. Izzy and Brain were doing who knew what, yet the bully was sure they would be back in time. If only for whomever she was crushing on… he grinned before spotting what Ferb was doing: sitting near his sleeping mother, he was writing into a small, black, and altogether unspectacular book that immediately caught Buford’s attention nevertheless. As quietly as he could, he sneaked up on Ferb from be­hind and snatched the book away from his friend.

Ferb stared at him, his eyes open wide in ac­tual horror. That surprised Buford, and now he wasn’t so sure if he wanted to know what that book was about any­more. Maybe it was something personal? »What’s in there?«, he asked his friend, and then Ferb had suddenly gotten up and was trying to reclaim his book.

»What’s going on?«, Phineas interrupted them. With Buford being distracted for a moment, Ferb was able to get the book back, holding it tightly with both hands.

»He’s making a big deal out of some lame book«, Bu­ford shrugged, but was pretty happy nevertheless. Even if it had lasted for only a few seconds, he always enjoyed a good fight.

»Did I hear ‘book’?«, Baljeet chimed in, and now ev­eryone was gathering around Ferb.

»What’s it about?«, Phineas asked his brother, who shook his head in reply.

»Told you«, Buford shrugged. »I bet he’s keeping a di­ary or something.« Trying to imitate Ferb’s voice, and horribly failing at that, he continued: » _Dear Diary, today I met another me who’s trying to be a great leader but really sucks at that. But I’m supporting him anyway because he’s me.«_

»Shut up«, Ferb retorted, much to everyone’s surprise.

»Whoa, hit a nerve there, huh.« Ferb’s behavior made that book even more mysterious - and interesting. »Come on, man. We’re friends! You’re only making us more cu­rious.« Knowing that wouldn’t convince him, Buford still had an ace up his figurative sleeve, for literally speaking, he was still shirtless and would continue to be that for a while. » _Arthur._ «

Ferb stared at him warningly, but it was too late. »Arthur?«, Phineas asked his brother. »Is that your…«

Ferb nodded.

»You never told me!« Dinner bell actually sounded quite upset. At least this was going the way Buford want­ed - he had not intended to play anyone off against one another, but he wanted to know what was in this book. And if a Van Stomm wanted something, they’d get it. No matter how.

»I’d say he’s been keeping enough secrets from us. I mean really, do we know anything about him? His whole life’s a mystery.«

»I do not think we should force him to say anything«, Baljeet said. »He has every right to remain silent.«

»That’s what he’s been doing his entire life«, Buford countered, crossing his arms.

A silence resulted from that, eventually broken by Ferb himself. »He’s right.«

»Damn right I am - wait, seriously?« He had not ex­pected Ferb to agree after his harsh (but true!) words.

Ferb nodded. »I... do suppose it is time to shed some light on my past. People like you deserve to know.« Even people like Buford who had just said some pretty hurtful stuff? Seemed like Ferb really was quick to forgive.

»Well, I’m all ears«, Buford grinned, letting himself slump down. The others followed his example, and Ferb started telling them.

»It _is_ a diary«, he began, turning his head to where his mother was sleeping. »To her.«

»You are writing her instead of a fictional entity?«, Baljeet asked, and Ferb confirmed that.

»Ever since she left.«

»We’ve known each other for almost eight years«, Phineas realized. »You must have been doing that for ages!«

»She vanished without a trace shortly before I turned four«, Ferb explained. »I used to tell her all about what I had done and experienced every day, and when she was gone…«

»...you continued by keeping this journal«, Baljeet con­cluded.

»And stopped talking to people because she was the only one to ever truly understand you«, Buford added as a joke, but Ferb actually nodded.

»There was a time I hardly talked to anyone at all, but I have since warmed up quite a lot… thanks to you.« He gratefully smiled at Phineas, who returned the expres­sion.

»You’re the best brother anyone could ever hope to have, and that’s never going to change.«

»There is one thing I don’t get«, Buford spoke up.

»Quantum physics?«, Baljeet suggested, and the bully shoved him in reply, causing his friend to lose his bal­ance and land on the ground.

»Other than that. I mean, about his name. How do you get ‘Ferb’ from ‘Arthur’?«

Ferb shrugged. »You don’t.« Thankfully, he explained it before Buford had to ask him another question. »Arthur is the name my mother gave me, after the king of the same name.«

»Which explains why you love that story so much«, Phineas laughed.

»So then what?«, Buford prodded his green-haired friend.

»My father thought it to be a name of bad connotation, considering the tragedy and misery attached to it. So it became my middle name instead.«

»And he named you Ferb«, Buford concluded.

»Not exactly. He named me Ferdinand.«

That made Buford laugh. » _Ja, dürfen s’ denn des_?«

Ferb sighed. »That’s exactly why I’m going by Ferb.«

»What did you just tell him?«, Phineas asked. As ex­pected, nobody but the Europeans of the group got the joke.

Buford grinned. »Let’s just say that emperor was a pretty… odd guy.«

And Ferb nodded. »You know my father’s humor. Naming me after a royal with several anecdotes to his name is better than after a noble and honorable king.«

Phineas thought about that for a moment. »Ferdinand Arthur Fletcher«, he savored. »Still sounds like a great king to me.«

»It suits you«, Baljeet added.

»Sounds pretty snobby, actually«, Buford shrugged, and Ferb frowned. »Just kidding, man. They’re right. Also, uh… sorry about what I said earlier. And making fun of you and stuff. It probably -«, Baljeet cleared his throat, »- okay, _definitely_ wasn’t a nice thing to say. If it helps, my dad’s stuck in prison for things he didn’t do, so I guess we’re not all that different on the matter.«

»You are forgiven«, Ferb said, intentionally sounding as royal as possible, causing Phineas to snicker. But he did not respond to the part about Buford’s dad the bully had accidentally mentioned. »For now, I’m… just glad my mother is safe.«

»Meeting her again after so many years...«, Baljeet re­minded them all.

»I started building things in the hopes of finding her somehow«, Ferb explained. »She had created a lot of gad­gets and machines, I believed taking after her passions would bring me closer to her.«

»And it was worth it«, Phineas replied. »Even without finding her… think of all the fantastic things we built!«

»She really brought people together«, Baljeet agreed, giving Phineas an idea.

»Do you think she knows my dad?«, he wondered. »Both of them being inventors, and stranded in this alter­nate dimension…«

Buford nodded. »You know, dinner bell, after all I’ve learned today… if they had a relationship as close as that of you two -«

»- none of us would be surprised«, Baljeet added, and for once, the nerd actually agreed to something the bully had said.

 


	13. Like Father, Like Son

When dusk eventually set in, three more hours had passed. Three more hours that Phineas and his friends had spent collecting their strength for the events to come. Baljeet and Buford had had a lively discussion on the matter of how to defeat the Duke, with brute force or in­telligence. Ferb had continued writing into his small book, and Phineas had not wanted to disturb him, so the redhead had been left frustrated that he was not able to invent anything in this world. He was already looking forward to returning home, but now that they were this close to their destination, he was not able to ignore his quite likely fate of death anymore. Not to mention the fact that if Ferb was the one about to die instead, his mother would most likely be witnessing that very mo­ment.

Troubled by thoughts like this, Phineas was incredibly glad that it was finally time for departing. Of course, it would bring them all closer to the threat ahead, but there was no point in delaying their departure - and any kind of occupation was a welcome distraction from worried thoughts.

As Phineas had already expected, Fern was completely assuming control. He was visibly tense, for once not say­ing much, not even some kind of motivational speech - just a simple »Alright, let’s go« once everyone was ready. And nobody else was saying anything either; because they just wanted to get this all over with, because they didn’t want to break the silence, or because they general­ly weren’t very talkative. Ferb was one of those people, staying close to his mother as they got moving. And even though he knew he shouldn’t be, Phineas was just the slightest bit jealous again, now that Ferb had some­one more important to him than his brother. So Phineas didn’t say anything either.

The silence lasted until the group had walked through the dark tunnels beneath the castle for quite a while and Buford noticed Baljeet’s unusually strained expression.

»Something wrong, nerd?«

Baljeet, much like almost everyone else, flinched as his friend’s loud voice echoed through the tunnels. »I am cogitating on the whereabouts of the darklings«, he in­formed everyone, considering Buford had completely drawn the attention to him. »We have not seen any of them, even though they are supposed to be especially ac­tive at this time of day.«

»Good point«, Bal agreed. Phineas had already noticed during Ferb and Buford’s absence that Baljeet and his look-alike seemed to be getting along quite well, sharing interests and having had a long conversation about an en­tire span of different topics. »We should at least have heard one by now.«

»It might be a trap«, Fern put in, coming to a halt for now. With a tone that was a little too harsh in Phineas’ opinion, he turned to Finn. »Do you know where they are?«

»...not here«, the boy declined, his voice quiet. Fern must have scared him with his strict voice, and Can gave the green-haired boy an ungentle jab. The boy stared at her, not seeming to know what he did wrong, but then he tried again, forcefully sounding nicer.

»Then where are they?«

»Won't... attack«, Finn stammered, and Phineas pitied him. Fern had made him remember his unpleasant life, and none of them had any experience on how to console him. Thankfully, Izzy took over, and Finn was visibly re­lieved he was not the center of attention anymore.

»He's right«, she nodded. »The Duke can't talk to the darklings, so they aren't as afraid of him as they used to be. And like I already said, they've always been on our side. The only one we still have to deal with is the Duke himself.«

»Well, that is a relief«, Bal commented, and Phineas believed he heard sarcasm in his voice.

Buford crossed his arms. «That guy's pretty dumb if he allows his only translator to change sides.«

»Unless it is a trap«, Baljeet reminded him, and Bal nodded approvingly. They really shared a lot of opinions.

»Finn wouldn't betray us like that«, Can countered, and Fern stopped them before things escalated.

»What side he's on doesn't matter now. I'm leading this group, we're not going to run into a trap.«

»Unless _you're_ not on our side«, Buford argued. »You know an awful lot about these tunnels, man. How do you explain that, huh?«

Fern frowned. »I already told you, I've been here be­fore, okay? I used to live in this area.«

»There's a village on the other side of the hill«, Can nodded.

Buford made a skeptical sound, but Phineas had enough of that. They were friends, they shouldn't be ar­guing! Especially not about things like that. »Guys! We're not here to fight. I mean... not against each other! We're a team, and we should act like one. I don't care who's leading the way as long as we get to our destination. If Fern knows which way to go, then let's follow him, alright? Finn can take over once we're in the castle. That way, everyone gets what they want.«

His friends looked at one another, and he saw some of them nodding in approval. And Ferb was glancing amus­edly at his brother, in a  » _Who's the king now?« -_ way. Phineas blushed; he was only doing his job.

»Thank you, Phineas. Now let's move on.« Fern was visibly bothered by the fact that Phineas was way better at solving conflicts than he was, and he quickly turned away and started walking again, so everyone had to fol­low him without time for talking.

Once again, there was silence. This time, nobody broke it. Phineas knew that they were all incredibly nervous and irritable, even though technically, their plan was to kill the Duke in his sleep without any complications at all. But they knew that a lot of things could go wrong, and then everything would be different.

Eventually, after some steeper ascension, they reached a dead end, and Buford scoffed. »Great job, o mighty leader.«

Fern shot him an angry glare, then activated some kind of hidden mechanism behind an edge in the rocky forma­tion. At once, the wall swung open, and the flashlight cast its light into a corridor, far longer than the light was reaching on both the left and right side. Directly in front of them was a wall, which meant that this tunnel entrance must have been hidden in a wall as well.

»Now how'd you know _that_ ?«, Buford asked in an at­tempted whisper that was still louder than average.

Fern ignored him. »Your turn, Finn.« He still sounded frustrated, and now even Phineas was convinced that he was hiding something. Had he been a thief before, steal­ing things from the very castle itself? How else would he be knowing about the hidden passage?

But Phineas didn't say anything. They most definitely had more important things to take care of. And right now, that meant following Finn, who was heading into the left direction. Can and Melody were by his side: the boy was exhausted af­ter this already long walk, and he wouldn't manage to go the remaining distance without someone supporting him. Finn still insisted on not getting carried by Buford; he wanted to prove that he could still do things on his own.

There was an eerie silence now that they were only rooms away from the Duke, only disturbed by the sound of their steps. Fern looked like there was something on his mind, something he desperately wanted to tell every­one but couldn't for some reason. But Finn was still mak­ing his way through the dark hallways - until he stopped in front of an enormous door. Fern and Can exchanged glances, as if they knew something about this place. As if this was the completely wrong place to go. Melody seemed nervous too, and Fern looked very reluctant when he gave his approval for opening the door.

Buford pushed it open, and it seemed to be heavy even for him. He let everyone through and closed it behind them.

Fern let the flashlight wander across the room. It was huge; the light did not reach the other end. Slowly, he moved the light around, and there was nothing to see but an empty hall. Eventually, the light found a chair, a throne even. It wasn't empty, but occupied by a man in a dark robe, with a triangular head and a pointy nose, and long brown hair that was tied together.

With eyes that could kill, and a wide, wicked grin, he was staring directly at them.

Fern dropped the flashlight, and it turned off. And for one moment, it was completely dark. They were all far too shocked and scared to move or speak, and not a sin­gle sound was heard - save for the man's cackling laugh­ter echoing from the walls.

Phineas was unable to do anything. He couldn't even see his own hand, and this man could be everywhere now. He could kill them all before they even knew he was there.

Thankfully, this terrifying moment was quickly over. The man muttered something, and suddenly, several torches all across the room lit up. Phineas shut his eyes in the sudden brightness, but quickly adjusted himself. Now he could see the entirety of the wide and high room, deco­rated with numerous pillars, but otherwise empty - not including the man and his enormous throne.

Albeit useless, everyone drew their weapon, Melody and Brain growled, Bal stood protectively in front of Bue, same for Buford and Baljeet - and Finn fell to his knees, lowering his head so deeply that his face almost touched the ground. His remaining eye was closed, his body shaking - partly from his fear, and partly from straining his one remaining arm. And the man spoke.

»Well done, my boy. It pleases me to see that you have carried out my orders as instructed.« He had a high, raspy voice, but the calmness in it made him all the more terri­fying.

Phineas gulped. They had all felt the trap on their way, and still, they had marched right into it. And Finn had known all along, without saying a word - while Izzy, who had explicitly told them of the very high probability of Finn going to betray them, had been ignored completely. But that’s what they got for that: an actual conversation with the Duke himself.

»Let him go!«, Can yelled at the man on the throne, completely ignoring every danger. She had enough of him, and especially of seeing her own brother treated like this.

The man did not lose his spiteful smile as he turned his head to her. And worse, he also kept his calm tone. »And why would I do that? You and I both know that he is rather… valuable.«

»Nobody deserves to be treated this way«, Can replied; her angry and upset voice was the complete opposite of the Duke’s. »He should be with his family, where he be­longs.«

The Duke cackled again. »Dead like his father, or gone like his mother? Or with his sister who never bothered looking for him - even though the entire time, he had al­ways been right here in these tunnels?«

Can froze at this last comment, and Phineas could com­pletely relate. Realizing that all this time, Finn had been so close to her…

Now that Can was still processing the Duke’s words, the man spoke to Fern. »Anyway… I must say, I am quite impressed that you actually made it. Didn’t expect you to come back here anytime soon.« Bal raised an eyebrow at that, and some others, including Phineas, agreed. _Back here? Have they met before, in this very castle?_

»We have come to vanquish you, Doonkleberg. Fol­lowing a prophecy, your demise has arrived at last.« Was that the man’s actual name? So they _did_ know each other.

The man leaned forward. »Tell me about that prophecy of yours.«

Fern didn’t see why not, so he complied. »It tells of two brothers from another world defeating you, and the time for that has come.«

The Duke seemed unmoved by these words. Even slightly amused. »And where is it from?«

»A wise and reliable member of the resistance.«

Now, the man actually started laughing. »Oh, I see what they did there! Kid, you’ve been fooled. I mean, come on: the Great Evil destroyed when all hope is lost? And even better, by mysterious and vaguely described strangers? They made it up.«

»He wouldn’t«, Fern replied behind clenched teeth, and the Duke shrugged.

»I’m sure he would. We both know that you’ve done everything in your power to avoid all kinds of responsi­bility your entire life. If he knows, too, then a prophecy stating someone _but_ you would defeat me in the end is everything you ever wanted to hear.«

»What is he talking about?«, Bal asked his leader. Phineas knew how much he looked up to Fern, how much he trusted him… a secret was to be uncovered, and the redhead and Bal both sensed that it was something big.

The Duke seemed to notice Bal’s relationship to Fern as well. »Did you never even tell them your name?« He sounded shocked - although it was plain to see how he had already expected it, and that he was just messing with them.

»Nobody is forced to tell anyone their full name in the resistance«, Fern replied, determined not to reveal any­thing.

»Balavan Tinley.« Bal’s voice was cold. Fern was keeping something from him, from all of them - and if it was this serious, it was breaking Bal’s trust.

»Oh snap«, Buford mumbled, and all eyes were on Fern. He was still hesitating, but even Can prompted him now.

»Just tell them already, Fern.«

The boy eventually gave in, trying to sound confident, but actually failing at that for once. »Fernando Alexander Fleming.«

Was that supposed to mean something? That name did not tell Phineas anything, and he saw that his friends from his own dimension were equally clueless. Unlike Bal.

His eyes widened in horror, and to make it worse, the Duke used his powers to telekinetically turn something around: a huge canvas from behind his throne that had faced the wall until now. And looking at its now revealed front side, Phineas realized what was so special about Fern’s name.

Because on this canvas was a portrait - of a younger Fern who was holding the same sword he still owned, but without being able to actually lift it at that age, and a man bearing a striking resemblance to Lawrence, Ferb’s father. Looking at the viewer. And dressed in royal clothes.

Bal stared at Fern in complete disbelief. » _He_ …«

Phineas remembered what Bal had told him: the king that had fled the country in fear of the Duke. The king that had abandoned an entire country. The king that had made Bal lose all respect for royalty.

»...is my father, yeah.« Fern actually sounded ashamed, but that didn’t change Bal’s thoughts.

»I cannot believe you kept that from me!«, he yelled, his voice sounding higher than usual as he did that, just like Baljeet when he was frustrated. »You are the _p_ _rince_ . The one that was supposed to defend the country. And what did you do? Run away, just like your father. How can I trust you now, knowing that you are one of _them_ ? You and your father, you could have prevented this from hap­pening. All of it.«

»Oh, but so could you, Balavan.« The Duke really seemed to enjoy the argument he had ignited. And now, its feeble spark was about to turn into a mighty blaze. »Remember this?« The man revealed the necklace he was wearing: a simple cord, with a silver-blue-ish gemstone attached to it. The stone seemed to be glowing faintly, and Phineas realized this must be the source of his pow­ers.

Bal looked at it from the distance. He was still over­whelmed by the current events, and yet again couldn’t believe his eyes. His words were forced. »...that stone be­longs to my parents.« They were merchants, Phineas re­membered. Or had been, anyway.

»It did, once«, the Duke corrected him. »Somebody stole it from them, remember?«

»...no«, Bal whispered. He had realized something, _re­membered_ something, and the Duke made sure that ev­eryone else knew about it as well.

»Yes. I was the man you saw talking to them that one night. You caught me stealing this very stone when I left, and detested your parents so much that you didn’t say a word. If only you had spoken up about it… I would never have gotten away with this stone, the source of my pow­ers. Blame your weak excuse for a leader all you want - but let’s face the facts: added to your heartwarming act of abandoning an entire village, including your family, for one unimportant boy, you are completely to blame for all the misfortune I was able to cause with this wonderful lit­tle stone.« He mocked Bal by repeating the boy’s own words. »You could have prevented this from happening. All of it.«

The sum of all this was simply too much for Bal to handle. Before things escalated and he broke down in tears, or worse, he dashed out of the room. Bue, unsure about what to do, looked around, then decided to follow his best friend. And nobody stopped him.

»And then there were eight«, the Duke commented. »And… Your Highness«, he said to Fern, very aware of how much that hit him, »I highly appreciate your return and the company you have brought. But understand, I am only in need of one of you.« And the man looked directly at Phineas.

 _Don’t show any kind of weakness_ , Phineas reminded himself. »What do you want from me?«

»The same thing I wanted from your father«, the Duke shrugged. »A gateway to your dimension.«

»I’m not going to help you with that«, Phineas de­clined immediately, his thoughts centering on his long-lost father. _He didn't give in. So I won't either._

»Thought so. Luckily, I can be very convincing.« And with that, the Duke put one hand on his necklace and pointed the other one at Phineas. Suddenly, the boy felt pain spreading across his body. As if a million scorching suns were bursting inside of him. He fell to his knees, screaming as the pain became almost unbearable. Ferb was trying to get to him, but the others held him back, and just when Phineas thought he’d be dead any second now, the pain was gone. Weakened by this experience, and shaking still, he fell to the ground, only faintly hear­ing the Duke’s words - »I’ll give you some time to recon­sider« - before passing out.

\---

Ferb helplessly watched the scene playing out in front of him. He wanted to help his brother, more than any­thing else, but his friends were holding him back. Even if all he could do was share Phineas’ pain or feel it instead of him, he _had_ to do something. But then, Phineas was already on the ground. Trembling... unconscious.

And the Duke really seemed to take pleasure in the shocked expressions of the group. »Finn«, he command­ed, and the boy rapidly stood up, still with balance prob­lems. »Take him away.«

Finn bowed his head once more, then growled. Melody snarled back angrily, and Ferb looked at her with worry in his eyes. Was Finn trying to give her orders? The boy continued with insistence, and albeit hesitantly, she eventually com­plied. The darkling walked over to Phineas, gently pick­ing him up. She gazed at Ferb, and the determination in her eyes was still there. She’d do everything in her power to protect Phineas, Ferb understood, and that helped him get over attempting to save his brother right now… at least somewhat. He shot a glare to his friends, stopping them from doing anything imprudent. With Phineas on Melody’s back, she and Finn left the room, and the Duke was still wearing his grin.

»And then there were six. Don’t worry, I’m not plan­ning to reveal any other shocking backstories anytime soon… but I’m not done with you yet.«

»What do you even want?«, Buford put in, unable to keep his mouth shut any longer. »The dogs, the magic, some vague relations to practically everyone, and your weird obsession with people with triangular heads… what’s your point, man?«

From what he could tell, Ferb shared Baljeet’s thoughts: _Just great, Buford. As if we didn’t have enough problems already._ But the Duke was not enraged at all. Instead, he seemed… happy. Happy that he could tell ev­eryone about his evil scheme. And admittedly, Ferb was also quite interested in how it all fit together.

»Well, kid, you see«, the man began. »It all started in a country not too far away from this one. I’m not going into detail here, but the precis is: everyone I knew was achieving something great in life - royalty, popularity, all those things I lacked. So I did the most logical thing… I came here and killed the king in order to spread chaos. Then I withdrew as soon as I realized that taking over wouldn’t be all that easy - while taking his son with me, an actual human I could bend to my will… quite a tempt­ing thought, no?« The man enjoyed the shocked, and in Can’s case, angry expressions of his enemies. »In the same night, I met a stranger from another dimension, he said. That guy’s imagination sounded quite useful at the time, so made him join me and then turned against him and kept him prisoner for the time being. And how’d you know - just two years later, I found a woman he actually knew from his world, and she apparently was a pretty good tinkerer. I imprisoned her as well and forced the two of them to devise powerful gadgets for me to use.«

Phineas’ father… _and my mother_ . They really had known each other.

»Point is, another king came, and with him a merchant family I got this little gem from.« He held up his neck­lace again. »I don’t know if it really is any kind of magi­cal, but with the modifications my new _friends_ made… I can do just about anything with it. My favorite op­tion is turning people into what everyone calls darklings - they cost less than soldiers, obey more easily, and the only downside is their unintelligible language. But I’ve got Finn to take care of that, so never mind.

»And, well, I’m sure you know most of the rest. How I took over this entire place, scared the coward of a king back to where he had come from… and once that was done, I started waiting for your little friend. His father had become quite useless for me for one reason or anoth­er, and the woman wasn’t good for anything other than darkling-ness without him. To get to their home dimen­sion, and take over it, of course, I needed someone with an equally inventive mind, something I was certain to find in the son he had talked about.

»So, yes, all this time, I could have destroyed the resistance, I mean, I did know of it. But I let it be - because ultimately, I needed you to bring Josh’s son here. Of course, there was a chance of him not showing up at all, but you know what they say. Like father, like son.« The Duke looked at Fern as he said that, and the boy did his best to appear unmoved. The revelation about his family tree had surprised Ferb as well, but he considered it too early to judge him yet. As for the Duke, Ferb did not know what to think of him ei­ther. He seemed like a megalomaniac, a madman even, but with an unsettling patience. Which made him all the more dangerous.

And suddenly, Ferb was absolutely positive that there was only one way to defeat the Duke with all his magic, knowledge, and power. A seemingly utterly foolish thought - but there was no other possibility.

He took a step forward.

»Doonkleberg«, he announced, determined to sound absolutely convinced of his own abilities. »I challenge you to a duel.«

For a moment, nobody said anything. Until Buford did.

»Are you crazy, man? That’s, like, _such_ a bad idea.«

But he had caught the Duke’s attention, and the man leaned forward curiously. »I am sure he is familiar with the rules.«

Ferb nodded. He knew the traditional rules of dueling, he had read about it in several medieval books - includ­ing the tale of _King Arthur_ . »One-on-one, with no restric­tions regarding weapons or techniques, as long as they are compatible with the code of honor.«

»Fine, I’ll make an exception for you on the last part«, the Duke replied, but overall agreed with what Ferb had said. Then, he brought up another question. »At what price?«

Ferb had already expected that question, and his an­swer was simple. A high price, but a just one. »If the re­sistance wins, you will release all prisoners, turn the darklings back into humans, and leave the country with­out ever returning.«

The Duke grinned. »And if _I_ win?«

Ferb took a deep breath. He was well aware of what was at stake, but he had to give the Duke a convincing reason to accept. There was no turning back. He could save Phineas, his mother, and both dimensions… he had no other choice. »Then my dimension and I will be at your command.«

Behind him, Baljeet gasped audibly, and Ferb couldn’t blame him. To everyone else, his proposal must be sounding completely foolish - maybe it was, but it was the only thing he could do.

And the Duke… well, he sounded pleased. »We have a deal.«

»Tomorrow, at noon«, Ferb declared, forcing himself to sound confident. In truth, he was still incredibly nervous, but the Duke would only take pleasure in seeing him like that. And the boy knew that a good first impression could already determine a lot. He did not want the Duke to be­lieve that he was afraid and intimidated. »Until then, you will allow us to remain in the castle without being threat­ened by your side. A truce, per se.« That was nothing far-fetched; a cease-fire before the arranged date of the duel was only fair.

»You have my word«, the Duke nodded.

»Will you keep it?«

»If you keep yours.«

Ferb nodded. »High noon«, he repeated. He detested the Duke, but respected him nevertheless, so he bowed his head, turned around, and left the room with his head lifted high.

But without being able to look any of his friends into the eyes.

 


	14. How Far This Can Go

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the complete reading experience, listen to [this](https://clyp.it/jesx4zyq) as soon as the song starts. The song itself is "How Far This Can Go" by Bowling for Soup.

_Mother… I am sorry. You do not know what I did yet, so I shall confess. I… I was foolish enough to challenge Doonkleberg to a duel. Because of me, this world and ours are both at stake. If I lose, many people’s lives will be destroyed or ended. Is that what King Arthur would have wanted? What Phineas would have done? Yes, he would have done the same for me, but he would not have stood a chance. But… will I?_

_How am I supposed to de­feat a man with seemingly unlimited power; without any invention to help me? I wanted to be important for once, and now I am, but is this truly worth it? Will the Duke be defeated like the prophecy foretold; will I pay the price of my recklessness and die?_

_...are you proud of me, Mother? Am I the hero you always wished I would be?_

_If this is truly the end, I want to tell you that -_

 

»Ferb!«

Instantly, the boy closed his journal in a twinge of pan­ic. Had someone been sneaking up on him? Or worse, ac­tually read what he had just written?

But he quickly relaxed again. The person stumbling through the dark corridor and into the small amount of light the flashlight was causing was nobody but Bue - who, admittedly, was the last person Ferb had expected to be looking for him.

»I hope I’m not bothering you«, the chubby boy went on as he sat down on the same enormous windowsill as Ferb. The greenhead had made himself comfortable there; there were no clouds in the sky and the moon shone brightly in the darkness of night. Sure, the glass window and the flashlight he had managed to pick up again during the conversation with the Duke made that almost impossible to see, but he had allowed himself a few moments without the device’s light. He had been sit­ting here for a while before Bue had found him, unable to face his companions after the recent events. In reply to his smaller friend, he shook his head. Maybe he really did need some company.

»Great!«, the boy smiled. »Bal said he needed some time alone, so I went looking for you guys. Where are the others?«

 _Bue has no idea what happened_ , Ferb realized. He shrugged, which was the truth: he did not know about his friends’ whereabouts.

»Is something wrong?«, Bue then asked. »You look as upset and frustrated as Bal.«

Ferb sighed, then nodded. There was no use hiding how he felt. Or why. »The Duke captured Phineas«, he explained bitterly. »And I challenged him to a duel in or­der to save everyone. But I most likely won’t.«

Bue took a few moments to process his friend’s words, then nudged him; much more gentle than Buford always was. »Well, with that attitude, you won’t! But I believe in you, and I’m sure the others do as well. Especially Phineas! You can’t let him down like that.«

»That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have the fate of two worlds lying in your hands.«

»Yeah, I don’t.« Bue sounded unusually frustrated him­self now. It even reminded Ferb of Buford. »But I’m Ivan’s apprentice. And he couldn’t come, so I’m the one that’s got to save people’s lives if they’re in trouble. Without me, Finn would be _dead_ !« He paused for a moment, then continued in a much lower volume. »Bal never wants me to join him on stuff because I’m not a great fighter. And almost everyone else thinks I’m weak and useless, too. But then, eventually, they need me and _my_ strengths after all.« He cracked a smile at Ferb again. »Ivan always believed in me, and that’s why I don’t let myself get brought down by negative stuff. And that’s why you shouldn’t either. I believe in you, Ferb. Phineas does, and your mom… and everyone else! And if you don’t want to believe in yourself, then believe in us, because we believe in you.«

Now, it was Ferb who smiled. »Phineas used to say that.«

»See, then it’s extra important!«, Bue insisted. »Look, I don’t know _how_ , but I know _that_ you’re gonna defeat the Duke. And if the others are still doubting that, then we’re gonna convince them.«

Ferb himself was still a bit in doubt, but Bue’s words had definitely taken effect. The boy had proven to be just as important as everyone else and was a necessary part of their group, with a motivation surpassed by nobody but maybe Phineas. And that very motivation was all Ferb needed. He made a decision. »Before we take care of de­feating the Duke, we need to find the others.«

»Then what are you waiting for?« Bue jumped off the windowsill and walked back into the corridor he had come from. »Maybe Bal has seen them!«

He was smarter than Buford, Ferb noticed. The bully would simply have wandered off randomly. _We really shouldn’t underestimate him._

And so, Ferb followed his friend through the hallways, his flashlight illuminating the path for Bue to see better. The greenhead was actually quite surprised how well Bue managed to find his way back to Bal, considering he had found Ferb in corridors completely dark.

They heard Bal before they saw him. »Get you gone! I am done with you!«

»Says the guy who’s at fault for the Duke getting his magic.« That was unmistakably Fern. Well, at least they had found their friends.

»I did not know he was evil! But you knew leaving the castle would cause problems, and you did it anyway. As the prince! And what does that make her? Not your sister, surely?«

Ferb and Bue came into view now. Their friends had somehow managed to light two of the lamps now illumi­nating this part of the castle, but now they were so busy with arguing, or in the case of Buford and Baljeet, watching that argument, that they did not notice the two boys at all. Only Izzy, impassively sitting nearby with her dog, shot the newcomers a glance, seemingly urging them to put an end to this discussion.

And Ferb wanted to, but waited until Can was finished with her addition to the talk: »You’re right, I’m not his sister. ‘Wife’ is the correct word.« There was silence for a moment, but she did not let anyone interrupt her. »So yeah, guess what? You know the Duke killed my father, just like he killed the king that came before Fern’s dad. They’re the same person. I’m as royal as Fern, and so is Finn, for that matter - _he_ ’s the true heir to the throne here, not Fern. Really, Bal, yell at Fern all the way you want, but you’ll have to say the same things to me.«

That left Bal completely speechless. Ferb smirked in spite of the commotion. He had already noticed Bal’s crush on Candace’s alternate self the archer was so obviously thinking of right now - not to mention the quite interesting relationship forming between Fern and Izzy. They were not hating each other, but actually trying to cover their true feelings - and because both of them did not want to admit anything, no progress was made. But who was Ferb to interfere?

While Bal said nothing, Izzy sighed in relief. »Finally someone with common sense. I couldn’t have listened to that ridiculous argument any second longer. Great job, girl.«

»Still«, Bal spoke up again, determined not to give up like that. »That does not change the fact that you, both of you, acted wrongly by running away from the castle just like Fern’s father did years later. Someone with power could have stopped the Duke, but you were all cowards.«

»Well, you joined the resistance. Back when you didn’t know about their past. Which means you believed in them.« Ferb had finally decided to speak up and reveal himself to the entire group, slightly altering something Phineas had said once. He knew how effective his brother’s words had often been.

But that was not convincing enough yet. It was Bue who added what Ferb had lacked the words for: »They’ve been the same people all these years. You can’t just com­pletely change your thoughts on them now just because you know their past!«

And even Izzy joined them. »Not only that, but regard­less of what they’ve done… what all of us have been through… we’re all still here, aren’t we? Fern and Can ran away, sure, but they formed the resistance, something they certainly wouldn’t have done if they had really abandoned this country. Even I’m here right now, be­cause… okay, I guess I believe in you guys after all. We’ve made it this far, and now really isn’t the time to get mad at each other for trivial things. Talk it out after we’ve saved the world, okay?«

The group went silent as everyone thought about the words that had just been spoken. They were all right, of course: they were a team and needed to work together - even Izzy agreed on that, after a long time of not wanting anything to do with any of them.

Only Buford did not seem to be convinced. »That’s all great and stuff, but I dunno. I’m still not fully inspired.«

Baljeet nodded. »He is right. Normally, we have a song to achieve that.«

They both looked at Ferb. Were they expecting him to spontaneously start singing? Yes, their words had re­minded him of all the previous times they had used a song to motivate everyone for the difficulties ahead… and maybe that was everything they needed to fully con­vince their team of not giving up hope.

He transformed his pocket knife, a flashlight at this point, into the banjo-like instrument from earlier once more - and cleared his throat.

\---

It was dark. So dark, in fact, that Phineas was unable to see anything. It was completely silent, too, but he felt the cold, rough ground touching one side of his face. He re­membered the unbearable pain he had felt, his fear of dy­ing… how his entire body had shaken and hurt.

Phineas froze for a short moment as he realized some­thing, then put himself into a kneeling position. He couldn’t see, so he slowly moved his fingers, touched his face and arms, and relaxed. Everything about his body was normal - for one second, he had feared that the Duke had turned him into a darkling. But that was not the case: he was still himself.

Having solved that mystery, the next thing Phineas wanted to find out was where the Duke had taken him. And where were the others? There was no sign of them yet, but maybe they were here after all. On all fours, Phineas crept forward until coming across a rough wall. He turned right, only to find another one only a few feet later. Another right turn, another wall, and finally - bars?

 _I’m in the Duke’s prison_ , he realized. Well, at least there was no imminent danger - it could have hit him a lot harder. Not to mention that his friends were already looking for him and about to save him, right? Especially his friends from Danville wouldn’t abandon him like that. And the Duke wanted only him, he wouldn’t harm the others; Phineas was certain of that.

But that reminded him: the Duke had mentioned Josh, his father… was he still here? There was only one way to find out.

»Hello?«, Phineas spoke up into the dark hallway the bars separated him from, his voice eerily breaking the ab­solute silence. »Is anybody there?«

There was no reply, but that only dimmed his mood slightly. Eventually, someone would come, and Phineas could wait.

And so he did.

His current situation reminded Phineas of how much he hated silence. There was no sound at all but what he heard inside his own head. Nobody to talk to, nothing to do - just him and his thoughts. Thoughts that were all about his friends’ fate. Where were they? What had the Duke talked about with them in Phineas’ absence? And most importantly, were they alright? Usually, he wouldn’t find it hard to think about the positive aspects of the situation, but the prison brought an atmosphere that made that nearly impossible for him, so he had no choice but to deal with unnaturally negative thoughts.

He did not know how many minutes had passed when he finally heard the sound of approaching footsteps. And he had been so keen on finally talking to someone again that he did not even care who it was. He just couldn’t take the silence any longer.

»Who’s there?«, Phineas asked, and yet again, nobody replied. But the steps came closer, and with them, the panting of a dog. Brain? No, this one was bigger. A dark­ling. He was unable to see the beast, but it sounded like it was right in front of him now.

Now, it growled, and a similar noise responded. The second being was no darkling though, that much Phineas could hear. And there was only one person that could make such a sound.

»Finn? Is that you?«

»...y-yes.«

That made Phineas feel a whole lot better already. »I’m so glad you’re here! This place isn’t all that great all by yourself.«

»I… I can’t let you out«, the other boy stammered and sounded both upset and scared. »If the M-master finds out, he’ll…«

»It’s okay«, Phineas interrupted his friend. »I’m just as happy about company.«

»I-I’m sorry«, Finn started again. »It’s all my fault… that you’re here.«

»The Duke raised you your entire life. Nobody expected you to turn against him overnight.«

But that didn’t change Finn’s mind. »You… you trust­ed me. And I led you right to him… even though I… I knew about his plans. All of them. But I was too… too scared of him to say anything. And now you’re here, and he’ll use you to take over everything and… and…« His voice cracked. »We… we were _friends_ , and then... I be­trayed you.«

Phineas frowned. He completely understood his alter­nate self’s thoughts, and there was an honesty in his words the boy couldn’t say anything against. But he wasn’t just going to accept the negativity. »We’re still friends!«, he countered.

»...what?«

»I’m not mad at you for what you did. I mean, we’re all still alive, and the Duke hasn’t won yet. And until that’s the case, there’s still hope. We’re not gonna give up just because things didn’t exactly turn out the way we wanted to. Ivan said we’d win, and even though the Duke said the prophecy is a lie… we’ll find a way to defeat him, trust me.«

Finn didn’t say anything for a moment, until he let out one single word. »...how?«

»How we’re going to win? I don’t know yet, but -«

»No, I…« He was nervous again, trying to find the right words to express what he meant. »How… how do you do that? How can you… be so positive the whole time? I-I want to help you, I really do… b-but the M-master terrifies me and… I’m too scared to change sides.« With his voice cracked, he added, whispering: »Why can’t I be like you, Phineas?«

These words surprised him. He had not expected such a question at all. Sure, some people had occasionally said that to him back in Danville; however, that was nothing he had ever really paid much attention to. And yet, now it was completely different, coming from someone that, technically, _was_ him. But that was when he got an idea. »Can you make some sort of light? I want to show you something.«

Slightly confused and uncertain, Finn eventually let out a growl. Phineas could hear the darkling’s disappearing footsteps, but it quickly came back, and moments later, Finn had lit the torch the beast was now carrying in its mouth. And Phineas knew the darkling: Melody.

Still, he flinched. Not only at the sudden brightness he had to adjust to, but also because of what he now saw. Finn had taken off his bandages, and even though his wounds had closed, his missing eye and blemished face were still a horrible sight, especially in the torch’s light.

Finn looked at him apologetically. »I-I completely for­got… the M-master stopped the b-bleeding and closed the wounds… I didn’t want to scare you!«

»...it’s okay«, Phineas replied, pulling himself together and noticing that Finn was wearing a t-shirt. »And I’m glad you got something to wear again.«

Finn nodded. »He didn’t want me to be in pain, or look weak… but he also didn’t want me to... forget.«

»We’ll defeat him, you’ll see«, Phineas smiled, remind­ing himself of his friend’s remark. »Speaking of seeing! Your injuries aside… don’t you think we look alike?« If one somehow managed to ignore Finn’s wounds, there really wasn’t much of a difference between them at all. And unlike Bal and Baljeet, they even were equally tall. »And that’s not the only thing we have in common!«, he continued, noticing how Finn seemed to become aware of what he was pointing out. »Ever since we first talked, I knew you were just like me! A dreamer with a sense for what is right. You always knew the Duke wasn’t completely right about everything, you said so yourself. I’m sure your imagination’s as vivid as mine. The only thing you need is the belief in yourself and the courage to make your dreams come true.«

»...you really think so?«, Finn asked, and Phineas sensed a spark of hope in his words.

He nodded, and smiled at his friend and at the darkling he had identified as Melody. »Believing in our own pow­ers can amplify them infinitely.«

Finn said nothing, thinking about his friend’s words. The three of them actually enjoyed the resulting silence, until Phineas felt an irresistible urge inside. He found himself looking at the torch’s flame - and without think­ing much about it, the words came right out of him.

 

_»It’s cold outside, light a fire,_

_Throw our past mistakes into the flame,_

_We can watch them burn._

_Lay down your head, close your eyes,_

_Tomorrow’s gonna be a brand new day_

_And the tide is gonna turn.«_

 

Finn seemed confused at first, but it took only mo­ments for him to simply relax and listen to his friend’s calming words. Phineas’ smile widened at that, and he in­stantly put even more emotion and enthusiasm into his words.

 

_»So hold on and be strong,_

_Nothing’s ever gonna bring us down._

_It’s not too late to turn this thing around.«_

 

And then, he couldn’t help it: what started out as slow and quiet became far more energetic. And yet, Finn wasn’t acting differently at all. He was still absorbing Phineas’ words and fascinated by the boy’s unbroken op­timism.

 

_»Let’s take it fast or slow, hold our breaths,_

_And jump into whatever this is._

_Grab a coat and let it all rain down._

_If we never stop believing, it’s gonna be alright._

_But if we don’t try, we may never know_

_How far this can go.«_

\---

Clearing his throat had caught everyone’s attention, and just like his brother, Ferb immediately came up with the right words as he struck his first chords.

 

_»Start the car, hit the gas,_

_Drive forever, never looking back,_

_Leave the world behind._

_Fly so high, touch the sun,_

_Hurry up, you know life goes so fast._

_We’re running out of time.«_

 

He was nervous at first, as always, and he realized that most of his words were only truly understandable for those familiar with his dimension’s technology. But when Ferb saw that he had gained even Bal’s interest and his other friends were already moved as well, courage took over his doubts and he continued with more confi­dence.

 

_»So hold on and be strong,_

_Nothing’s ever gonna bring us down._

_It’s not too late to turn this thing around.«_

 

By now, the others had completely ceased their arguing and came closer, letting Ferb’s music inspire them. Even Izzy seemed to have forgotten her usual need for distance and was standing, Ferb noticed, next to Fern, while Bal had gotten closer to Can. But they were all too distracted to notice.

 

_»Let’s take it fast or slow, hold our breaths,_

_And jump into whatever this is._

_Grab a coat and let it all rain down._

_If we never stop believing, it’s gonna be alright._

_But if we don’t try, we may never know_

_How far this can go.«_

 

During the song, Ferb’s voice had become more and more powerful. He was so occupied with singing that he almost completely forgot the outside world, and his friends were so busy listening to him that they, too, ig­nored the fact that Ferb’s excuse of a guitar definitely did not live up to the otherwise epic song.

 

_»By the time the curtain's falling_

_They'll be standing up and screaming out our names._

_Can’t you hear the future calling?_

_We'll go all the way and never be the same, yeah.«_

\---

In the Duke’s prison, Phineas had no instruments to ac­company his voice, but that didn’t matter to him - or to Finn and Melody either.

 

_»So hold on and be strong,_

_Nothing’s ever gonna bring us down._

_It’s not too late to turn this thing around.«_

\---

_»Take it fast or slow, hold our breaths,_

_And jump into whatever this is._

_Grab a coat and let it all rain down.«_

\---

_»If we never stop believing, it’s gonna be alright._

_But if we don’t try, we may never know_

_How far this can go.«_

 

As he sang these last words, Phineas noticed with hap­piness that Finn, though not actually singing along, was mouthing this last refrain. And not only that, but espe­cially when repeating the last, and essential, line, Phineas had the strange yet incredibly great feeling that some­body _was_ singing along indeed. Although it sounded im­possible, it felt like it was Ferb… and the boy took that as confirmation that his brother was alright.

Phineas looked at the boy in front of him again. Finn was smiling - no, more than that: this was the most joyful Phineas had ever seen him, and quite possibly the happi­est moment in his entire life, too. Once again, Finn seemed to be at a loss for words, but this time, not out of fear, but because of the sheer overwhelming effect the song had had on him. And Phineas gave him the time he needed.

»...thank you«, Finn eventually managed to say, with a sudden determination in his voice. »I think… I think I know what I’m gonna do today.«

With that, the boy got on his feet again, leaving the room with Melody by his side.

Phineas was left in the dark once more, but that didn’t matter to him now. His heart was full of the light of hope.

 


	15. Our Only Hope

Ferb let the last note of his song die away, and as soon as he had finished, his friends applauded him.

»That’s what I was talking about!«, Buford cheered, patting Ferb on the back. »Now we’re all at least twice as motivated.«

Ferb just nodded. Unbeknownst to his friends, the song itself had not been the only motivational aspect for him: while singing the last couple of lines, he had had the strange feeling that somebody, _Phineas_ , was singing along. Which gave him an even bigger reason to see this through. His brother was counting on him. Everyone was. But even the song could not change the fact that he had absolutely no idea how to win the battle against the Duke.

»Can, I...«, Fern spoke up, immediately getting her attention. »I have to tell you something.«

»Yeah, what is it?«, she asked in a confused tone, just as curious as the others. Fern seemed unusually... apologetic.

»Remember how I got this?«, he continued, touching the scar on his forehead.

Can shrugged, not knowing how this could be relevant at all. “It was the night we fled from the castle. I went ahead, you got lost in the dark tunnel for some moments, and then you panicked and drew your sword, accidentally injuring yourself before I found you.«

Fern nodded. »That's what I told you.«

That took her aback. »What do you mean?«

»That he is hiding yet another thing from us«, Bal supposed, and this time, Fern did not attempt to object.

»In a way... but only from you, Can. When I told you that stuff, I was lying. I didn't hurt myself.«

»Then who did?«

»Finn.«

Can just stared at him. »You're kidding me.«

Fern returned the expression, not looking away like he normally would have. »No, Can. He was there. He overthrew me and nearly killed me with his dagger, and when he hesitated, I got back on my feet. We just stared at each other, and then he disappeared. I never told you because you wouldn't have believed me anyway. And then, when you said he's your brother... it was me who couldn't believe it. We could have saved him so long ago, taken him with us and everything, but...« He sighed. »I'm sorry I never said a word.« Turning to Bal, he added: »To all of you.«

»Don't worry about it«, Buford said. »You're basically Ferb, you're supposed to not say stuff.«

»We can't change what happened«, Can decided. »But we can still help Finn now.«

»Speaking of him«, Izzy noted, nodding into where the area faded into a dark corridor, and Ferb was not the only one to be surprised at the sight. Standing there was Melody - his mother, he once again reminded himself, for that was still too incredible to be true - and seemingly hiding behind her was Finn, with his wounds uncovered yet already somewhat closed. Was that another ability of the Duke's stone? And was the man at least a little kind – or did he only want Finn to be as useful as possible?

»What is he doing here?«, Bal remarked unnecessarily, not very fond of the boy’s return.

»Let him speak«, Fern decided. Ferb noticed how his alternate self was trying to reinforce his authority - after all, he was still the resistance’s leader, no matter how the recent revelations had shattered the trust his friends had had in him.

»...please don’t hurt me«, Finn eventually whispered af­ter a moment of silence.

»We won’t break the truce«, Can reassured him, shoot­ing a warning glance at those that seemed likely to forget about that: Bal and Buford, although the latter appeared visibly indignant at the accusation. The bully liked Finn, especially since being the one that saved his life. And Ferb knew that Buford would never attack the small boy, while Can just appeared to focus on his rough side and, of course, making sure her own brother was safe.

»Tell us what brings you here«, Fern prompted Finn again. From the way their eyes met, Ferb really believed to see how they were both thinking back to the night of their first encounter.

Finn replied with confidence, as if remembering something else than that. »Phineas.«

»Where is he?«, Buford immediately wanted to know.

»Is he alright?«, Baljeet added.

Finn nodded, really seeming quite happy - at least com­pared to his usual behavior. »He’s fine. And he… he made me realize how I can help you.«

Bal raised an eyebrow, unimpressed by his words. »What, with defeating the Duke? Why would you? You are nothing but his little henchman.«

»He’s my brother«, Can reminded him.

»Which doesn’t excuse anything he’s done«, Izzy put in, then shrugged. »Although it should be obvious that his so-called ‘betrayal’ was not his own doing, but complete­ly influenced by the Duke’s huge impact on his life. You know what Fern just told us. Finn's not a bad guy.«

»No«, Finn stated, making Ferb realize why he was in such a good mood. Sensing Phineas singing along had not been his imagination, but the truth: his brother must have been singing to Finn, the very song Ferb had sung, giving Finn quite a big confidence boost.

Bal was still glaring at him, however, so Fern put an end to the talk. »It doesn’t matter. The way I see it, our chances of winning tomorrow are slim, so I, at least, am willing to listen to any idea that might help us increase those chances.« He looked at Finn again. »Go on.«

The boy bowed his head, and Ferb wondered if he did that anytime someone gave him an order. But he still sounded excited - not as enthusiastic as Phineas when he had an idea, but it was a start. »You’re not as powerful as the Master«, he began, and quickly went on when he saw Bal’s still suspicious eyes on him. »So you… you need to change that.«

»How?«, Baljeet asked. »Phineas is not here to invent something to aid us, not to mention that we do not have any material to work with.«

Surprisingly, it was Buford who seemed to be the first to understand what Finn was trying to say. »Then we need to step up our game! We know dinner bell’s great at inventing, but there’s someone even better than him, and that’s exactly what we need.«

»Phineas’ father!«, Baljeet exclaimed. »Of course! Bu­ford, that is brilliant.«

»Say that last part again once I’ve got something to record it with«, the bully grinned, then shrugged. »It’s his idea though.«

Finn nodded, visibly glad someone liked his proposal. »I can lead you to him. He’s not in the dungeons any­more, I… that’s what I got punishment for. I freed him.«

»I thought the Duke only hurt you to trick us?«, Bal asked, suspicious as ever.

»I freed him«, Finn insisted. »The... the Master told me to, so I did, and then... then he told me to bring you to the castle, so I went to do that too... and then there were the darklings, I... I had no idea they would...«

»I still sense a trap«, Bal argued, earning an audible sigh from Can.

»Would you stop saying that already? Nobody but you cares about that, and even if it turns out to be one, I don’t see you having any more promising suggestions.« She walked over to her brother. »I’m going with him.«

Ferb nodded and imitated her movement - after all, he was the only one that actually needed to meet Phineas’ father. He put a hand on Finn's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. The boy really did not deserve Bal's hate, not to mention the horrible things he had been through. And Finn eased up when he was touched, thankful for the people believing in him.

Fern joined them as well. »I’m still your leader. That’s reason enough to come with you. And as long as we’re gone… Izzy, you’re in charge.«

She turned her head to him, surprised by his order. »You’re kidding, right?«

But he shook his head. »I'd rather have you in charge than any of the others staying with you.«

Buford seemed offended, Bal upset, and Baljeet and Bue did not seem to mind. And Izzy raised an eyebrow. »Are you saying that because you like  _me_ as a leader or because you don’t like _them_ in that position?«

Fern blinked at her in confusion. »We shouldn’t lose time«, he eventually stated, turning away from her. »Let’s go.«

When Finn and Melody led the small group away, Can gave Fern an ungentle jab as soon as Izzy and the others were unable to hear them.

»What was that for?«, the boy protested, and she rolled her eyes.

»Just tell her how you feel, it’s getting ridiculous.«

»What? Me and Izzy? There’s nothing there.«

»Obviously«, Can commented, not at all hiding the sar­casm in her voice.

Ferb hardly listened to their talk. His interest lay in where Finn was leading them: back into the tunnels. In there, Ferb’s flashlight revealed something that made Fern instantly put a hand on his sword, for standing right in front of them were more than five darklings. They seemed irritated by the sudden bright light, so Ferb dimmed it - somehow, he sensed that he wasn’t in any danger.

»Don’t attack them«, Finn spoke up, slightly worried. »I… brought them to help us.«

»With finding Phineas’ dad?«, Fern wondered, reluc­tantly letting go of his sword.

»No, I… I thought we’d be losing too much time with­out them. It’s all the way down the hill and… and more, and it’s dark so you can’t see, and…« He paused, only continuing when Can encouraged him to do so. »...and I thought we should ride.«

Fern froze - and while Ferb and Can were taken aback as well, the resistance’s leader was the most shocked. »There’s no way I’m riding on such a… thing.«

»It’s a person«, Can pointed out, but that didn’t change Fern’s mind.

»That makes it extra weird.«

»Weird, maybe, but Finn convinced me. We shouldn’t waste hours reaching Josh and returning from him when we can speed it up a bit.«

»If we don’t try, we may never know how far this can go«, Finn added almost inaudibly.

Fern turned to him, surprised by his words. After all, Ferb thought himself to be the only one that had sensed Phineas’ voice during the song, the others had no clue about how Finn was able to know the lyrics… and even­tually, they made Fern change his mind. »...alright, fine. But not one word about this to the others.«

»It’s not like you don’t have any riding experience«, Can reminded the boy who _was_ a prince, after all.

»Yeah, with horses, and even that was ages ago«, Fern complained. »But alright… which one is mine?«

Finn only shrugged before he got on the darkling crouching in front of him, and Ferb was slightly jealous when he saw that it was Melody. He’d have loved to be the one using her, but he understood that she knew best how to adapt to Finn’s injuries. So Ferb approached the darkling nearest to him: it was taller than Melody, with brown eyes and a curious, challenging look on its face - but it was nobody Ferb immediately recognized. Fern had chosen a brown-eyed one as well, its dull expression in­dicating that the boy probably wouldn’t be making a fool of himself when riding on it, as it might have happened on a more lively darkling. Can’s selected one was such a case: green-eyed, and definitely looking friendly and not at all intimidating.

Finn let out several growls, to which the three dark­lings reacted by crouching down just like Melody, allow­ing the friends to sit up. It was an odd feeling, but not stranger than the many other things Ferb had already rid­den - like ostriches, for example. The darkling shifted be­low him, getting used to the minimal additional weight. All other darklings disappeared back into the tunnels, and Melody, with Finn on her back, slowly walked past the three other pairs, both of them making sure that everything was going well. »That’s Denton«, Finn commented when they passed Ferb and his darkling. That way, Ferb found out that Fern’s one was called Sheldon and Can’s was Robbie, and suddenly, he knew exactly who they were: _Love Händel_ , or at least a medieval equivalent thereof, for he was sure they were a band in this dimension as well.

When they set off, Ferb turned off his flashlight com­pletely since he was too busy holding his balance and didn’t want to irritate the darklings either. They were able to see perfectly in the complete darkness, and he trusted them on the matter of knowing where to go.

As it quickly turned out, however, Fern had not made much of a good choice when selecting his darkling: de­spite the apathy he had shown earlier, Sheldon was not quite as dull when moving. In fact, he was the fastest of them all, often running ahead and having to wait for the others to catch up. And Fern, well… he soon regretted his choice. »Can I change?«, he complained as soon as the others had caught up with him once more. »I’m not gonna survive the rest of this, I swear.«

»I think he fits you perfectly«, Can replied, actually sounding amused.

They still could not see each other, but it was easy to imagine how strained and exhausted Fern was at this point. »...can you at least tell him to slow down? Or to be more steady in his movements… he could use some of that.«

That made Ferb snort, mainly because of the way it re­minded him of Sherman, Sheldon’s counterpart from Danville. _Sounds like he ain’t got rhythm._

But Finn complied, using the darkling language to say who knew what, and afterward, Fern didn’t complain nearly as much as before, so it must have worked. They let themselves be carried through some more tunnels and unexpected turns, though Ferb’s darkling, Denton, was considerate enough to let out short growls before a bend, allowing Ferb to brace himself. In the end, he decided that this wasn’t all that bad after all, not to mention that the darklings’ speed kept him awake at a time he would normally be sleeping already.

After who knew how long, the group emerged into the light of the moon and stars - which wasn’t that much brighter, but at least Ferb was able to see something again. It looked like his friends had gotten through the ride well enough, even Fern only seemed a little sick. Can refrained from commenting on his by now quite messy hair, and the rest of the journey happened in si­lence again. Ferb enjoyed observing the moon and the mystical effects its reflected light had on the landscape. They were riding on open ground, allowing him to see the moonlit forest from a distance.

Eventually, a village came into view: grass had grown over what had once been roads and pathways, different plants were covering the buildings whose wooden com­ponents had weathered, and all in all, one was able to see at first glance that this place had been abandoned many years ago.

»Charming«, Fern commented when the darklings came to a halt and the friends dismounted. They all felt the depressing atmosphere of the village, so Can decided to get this over with quickly.

»Okay, Finn. Where is he?«

The boy pointed at one of the houses that were least af­fected by decomposition. »I’ll wait here, if that’s okay… he doesn’t really… like me, or the darklings.«

»That’s alright«, Can nodded, expressing slight worry in her voice. Just like Ferb, that had made her wonder about Josh’s nature they didn’t really know anything about. »We’ll be calling you if we need you.«

Fern was already knocking at the building’s door - which was so brittle that it fell right into the house as soon as he put some force into his action. The interior wasn’t very different, as Ferb’s flashlight revealed: much of the wooden furniture was rotten, the roof had several leaks that had allowed rain to enter the building and moss to grow, and there were spider webs and dust everywhere.

All three of them stepped inside and looked around. »Hello?«, Can shouted. »Josh?«

»I don’t think there’s anybody here«, Fern said as he brushed some dust off his jacket.

Just then, they heard a noise from a nearby room, and they quickly headed there to find out what it was.

»Hello?«, Can asked again when they didn’t spot any­thing that might have caused the sound.

»Go away!«

The unfamiliar voice came from within a cupboard. Ferb was the one who stepped forward to open it, and as soon as he did, a man stumbled out of it and onto the ground. He had a triangular head just like Phineas and the same red hair, but that was already everything they had in common. The man’s hair was unkempt, his pants and plaid shirt ragged and dirty, and it was safe to say that he was as shabby as the house he was in.

The friends exchanged surprised, even shocked, glances. They had all expected something completely dif­ferent… how was this guy supposed to help them? But maybe, hopefully, it was only his appearance that gave him a bad first impression - he could still be an incredible inventor.

»Leave me alone!«, the man yelled again, his voice showing hints of him being Phineas’ father. It sounded just like the boy’s, yet more mature, but also without any sign of confidence. Actually, he resembled Finn far more than Phineas. The man covered his eyes because of the bright flashlight and tried to get away, leaving Ferb and the others no choice but to circle him. The greenhead turned the flashlight towards the ground, so its light was still there without blinding anyone.

»We don’t mean you any harm, Josh«, Can said, gain­ing a stunned look from him.

»...Candace, is that you? What are you doing here? How did you -? What…«

»She’s not your daughter«, Fern interrupted him. »Just someone who looks like her.«

»But -«

Can helped Fern out. »You came here from another di­mension, remember? Your daughter is still there. I’m not her.«

»Oh.« Josh’s voice was full of disappointment, of hope that had been taken away as quickly as it had come. Then he seemed to remember something and he freaked out again. »...then how do you know my name? And about that? Did _he_ send you? I’m… I’m not going back there. You can’t force me. I won’t…«

So that was what Finn had meant. Josh was already scared of them, what would have happened if he had been here?

»We’re not on the Duke’s side«, Fern told him. »We’re going to defeat him, and we need your help for that.«

»I’m not going back there«, Josh repeated, standing up again, but without even attempting to get the dust that had covered the ground off him. »Whatever side you’re on. I just… no, I can’t. Not with them everywhere.«

»The darklings?«, Fern asked, and the man flinched. Can sighed, visibly annoyed about her friend’s tactless­ness.

»You don’t have to come with us«, she explained. »We just need you to invent something that can help us win.«

»No!«, Josh cried as if she had just asked him to de­stroy the world. »Are you nuts? You… you can’t make me do that.«

»What’s wrong with inventing?«, Fern asked. »Isn’t that what you do?«

»What’s _wrong_ with inventing?«, Josh repeated. »Ev­erything! You have no idea! Those days are over. I’m not gonna invent anything again. Ever.«

»You have to«, Fern insisted. »You’re our only hope.«

»Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I did terrible things. The way this world is, it’s all my fault. The fear and the pain and… no, kids. Count me out.«

»Your son needs you.« Ferb understood Josh’s behav­ior. He had created the technology behind the stone that gave the Duke his powers and that had ultimately caused the fall of a kingdom… Ferb wasn’t so sure if he’d have dealt with that knowledge any differently. But they need­ed his help to put an end to this. Phineas did.

»...I don’t have a son.«

»Oh boy«, Can mumbled, then became louder again. »Phineas. Your son. He was two when you left your di­mension, you must remember him.«

»No«, Josh countered. »I don’t… I don’t have a son.«

The group went silent as everyone tried to find some­thing to reply to that. It was Fern who did: »He remem­bers. He’s just trying not to.«

_Just like Fern has never told anyone about his royal past._ Yes, that made sense, and when Josh nodded hesi­tantly, they knew Fern was right.

»Phineas is in trouble«, Can repeated. »You’re the only one who can help us save him and the rest of the world.«

»Both worlds«, Fern corrected her, but that still hadn’t convinced Josh at all.

»I’m not going to help you«, he insisted. »You’d under­stand if you knew what I did. I… I was an inventor once, yes, but that was long ago. Before I was foolish enough to come here and the Duke caught me. He told me he’d set me free if I just did what he wanted me to do, and I spent years telling myself that the time for that had al­most come, after just one more invention… I was a fool to believe he’d ever let me go. And one day, he made me create a powerful stone with nearly limitless applications, and instead of letting me go, he… he made me witness its abilities.« He stared at Can with wide, desperate eyes. »Your brother.«

»...I’m not your daughter«, she repeated.

»I think he really means Finn«, Fern replied, and Josh nodded.

»The king’s boy. He’d been there ever since I was… I watched him grow up. He was just like the boy I’d left behind, in every way, and so full of hope in spite of how the Duke was treating him, from what I could tell from the few times I’d actually seen him... but of course, the Duke told me about him often enough, and about his hopes of my own son becoming just like me… and then, I... », he struggled for words, still looking at Can, »...I’m sorry.«

»...then what?«, she asked, and Ferb wasn’t sure if any of them actually wanted to know the answer. »Josh, what… what did you do?«

»The stone«, he told them once more. »The stone, kid. I made it, and… he needed to test it. On a human. On _him_ . I tried to stop him, I… I begged him not to, but he forced me to watch. To watch how he turned that innocent boy into a monster… and back again, only to find out that some… abilities were still sticking with him... he screamed in agony as his body slowly transformed, screams and images still haunting me every time I close my eyes… the suffering of that poor boy, my… my _son_ , I…«, his voice grew louder, »...why did you make me re­member? _Why_ ?«

Can just stared at him in shock, trying to process his words. Just like Ferb. He could only imagine how much the darkling transformation must hurt, especially to such a young boy… with that as punishment, no wonder Finn was so scared of disobeying. And Izzy had known all along. She had told them Finn was able to talk to the darklings because they were people, but only now did he understand what she had really been trying to say. And the reason she had been this indirect... she had known how Can would have reacted. Known that she was his brother. That they were royalty.

»Because that’s exactly what will happen to every in­habitant of both worlds if we don’t stop the Duke«, Fern said, interrupting Ferb's thoughts, his voice not showing any sign of him sympathizing with Josh. If that was part of him trying to be a leader, he was doing an impressive job. »He’ll force Phineas to work for him like you did, and maybe he’ll hurt him the same way he hurt Finn. We can stop this from happening, all we need is one single invention of yours.«

»Well…«, everyone stared at Josh in anticipation of his reply; they were all counting on him, after all, »...you’re forgetting a small detail, kid.«

»Huh?« Fern raised an eyebrow.

»Even if I helped you… it wouldn’t be doing any good. I can come up with ideas, yes, but they’re useless without someone to realize them. I’m not a mechanic.«

Ferb simply held up the pocket knife with who knew how many applications, some of them visible.

Josh stared at him in disbelief. »...where did you get that?«

Ferb shrugged. »Phineas and I made it.«

»At that age… impressive. I was only able to realize my inventions when I was long past being a child, when I met someone with building skills far beyond belief.«

»Melody«, Ferb nodded, gaining a bewildered look from Josh. »My mother.«

»Your…« The man was speechless, which Fern took as a chance to take over.

»She is here, and she’s on our side. She’s counting on you to help us, because it’s her son who’ll have to defeat the Duke tomorrow. And he might hurt him the way he hurt Finn. Don’t make her witness that. She hasn’t given up like you yet, Josh. Don’t let her.«

Josh went silent, closing his eyes in deep thought. »...what do you need?«

Ferb literally felt how everyone was incredibly relieved about these words. Now they really had a chance of win­ning after all. »Anything to help me win against him and the stone.«

The others took a step back, to which Can commented, slightly amused: »We’ll just wait outside, we wouldn’t be able to contribute anything useful to your highly ad­vanced technology.«

Ferb shrugged and found himself not caring about whether or not the two of them would stay. Can was right, after all: this was something only people from the other dimension could figure out.

»We don’t have enough parts to build something en­tirely new«, Josh began. »All we have is this rotten place and your knife. But...« Josh suddenly grinned as if having just the perfect idea. »Yes! Perhaps that is all we need. Do you have paper?«

Ferb nodded, handing him both his journal - open in the last third, where the pages were still blank - and the knife he had transformed into a pen. Josh started sketch­ing immediately, commenting his ideas without taking a breath. Even though he had been reluctant at first, the joy of inventing had taken over him the second he had found a purpose in doing it again, and Ferb watched him curi­ously, nodding at some suggestions and shaking his head at some others, but all in all being incredibly impressed by the many ideas he would never have come up with. _Just like when inventing things with Phineas._

After some time, Ferb disassembled the pocket knife, using some shards he had found as wrenches. He left the flashlight part intact: that had been one of his own addi­tions to the device back when they had created it, for it was quite a plausible thought that they might need anoth­er part of the machine in complete darkness one day. He was glad that this small modification came in handy after all.

Of course, there was a huge amount of incredibly com­plex technology built into the device, with many parts re­arranging to turn into the desired object. Josh whistled in admiration when he saw the knife’s interior, and Ferb did his best to implement the various ideas the man had had, in the incredibly fast yet effective way he and Phineas always created their inventions.

After all, the rollercoaster, the rocket, and all the other fantastic creations had only taken them not even half a day to build, so the hour or so Ferb spent working on his secret weapon fit into his usual time frame, especially with the little material he had had. He was tired but con­tent when he eventually left Josh’s refuge and returned to his friends and the darklings. Josh had stated again that he didn’t want to return to the castle under any circum­stances, and Ferb respected that. They’d come back for him once it was over.

»Well, that was fast«, Fern admitted when Ferb came into view, staring at the knife that was still looking the same as before. »Care to demonstrate?«

»Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see what it can do«, Can put in. »But we’ve got enough time for that tomor­row. For now, we all need sleep. Tomorrow’s gonna be a big day.«

As if agreeing, Fern yawned. »...you got a point there, sis.«

Finn blinked at him in confusion. He had only memo­rized that Can was _his_ sister, nothing more than that.

Fern shrugged. »Sorry, habits.« He walked over to the once again apathetic darkling that was Sheldon. »I know this guy’s gonna be fast as heck again, but I’ll be so asleep, I won’t even notice. Just wake me up once it’s to­morrow.« With that, he sat up and immediately leaned against the darkling’s back without making any sound but snoring afterward.

»And off to sleep he goes«, Can commented, then fol­lowed his example of getting onto a darkling. Ferb and Finn did as well, and after some of the crippled boy’s growls to remind Sheldon of being a bit more careful, they rode back to their friends.

Ferb soon found himself in the same position as Fern and must have already seemed asleep to Can, but he was still able to hear her words to her brother: »You know, Finn… when this is over, I’ll make sure you get to experience all the great things you missed. I’ll give you your life back, I promise.«

_And I am not going to let Phineas die_ , Ferb added be­fore dozing off, completely aware of what these words meant for himself. _I promise._

 


	16. High Noon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not exactly sung in the chapter, so there's no pitched version or anything, but the song Phineas is quoting near the end is "The Wind Beneath My Wings", originally by Bette Midler, but here, the slightly rewritten version by Sonata Arctica.

The next morning arrived for Phineas with someone nudging him gently. »Oh, there you are, Perry«, he smiled, still half asleep. His pet platypus was more or less consciously attempting to wake him up, just like ev­ery morning. Phineas got pushed again and, giving in, the boy opened his eyes. Crouching next to him was no platypus, but a black wolf - and the boy was wide awake instantly, his heart racing in shock before noticing its deep blue eyes. »Oh! Good morning, Melody.«

He sat up, still yawning. The hard ground had not been nearly as comfortable as his bed back home, but some­how, he had managed to get some sleep regardless. The dungeon was lit, Phineas noticed, and he spotted a burn­ing torch lying on the ground.

»Hey«, a familiar voice greeted him from near the torch, and Phineas smiled when he saw Finn. »I… brought you some food.«

He held out an apple which Phineas gladly took. Only then did he notice that Finn and Melody were actually inside his prison cell and not on the other side of the bars.

»And water too«, Finn added, cracking a smile and holding out a cup. Phineas immediately put the apple aside and drank the entire wa­ter that was in the cup.

»Man, it’s great to have something to drink again!«, he said with a satisfied laugh. »I’ve been dying of thirst here.« Thinking about it, his last beverage had been in the late afternoon.

»The Master doesn’t know I did this… he said you shouldn’t get anything to eat or drink.« There was pity in Finn’s voice.

»Well, I’m glad you helped me out«, Phineas replied, biting into the apple Finn had brought. »I wonder what his plan with me is, anyway. Do you know what exactly he’s gonna do?«

»He’ll hurt you if you don’t do what he wants you to«, his friend told him immediately. »But… like you said, you shouldn’t give up. The others, they… they’re gonna get you out at noon.«

»We’ve still got some time, then«, Phineas decided, then realized he had no idea what time it was. But Finn nodded, so it was probably morning. His eyes rested on the burning torch again. »Say… how did you light that? No offense, I’m just curious.«

»Oh, uh...«, Finn began, not having expected that ques­tion. »It’s… easy, actually. I just need someone to hold it, and then I can use this.« He held up a dark gray piece of rock.

»Flint?«, Phineas asked, and his friend nodded.

»There’s a lot of that in the tunnels. It’s what this place is named after, too.«

 _Firestone Castle_ , Phineas remembered. »Why not just call it Castle Flint or so, then?«

»Because that’s the queen’s name already. The king devised the castle and let his workers build it for her, be­fore he married her and got that name as well.« Finn shrugged. »Maybe they didn’t want it to have the same name as them, I… I don’t know that. I just know what the Master told me.«

»That king you just mentioned… that’s your dad, right?« He asked that before being able to stop himself. Maybe Finn didn’t know that at all and it would freak him out? But his fear was unfounded.

»Yeah… the Master said he was a bad king though. That’s why he took me with him. So that he could train me instead. And he killed that king too, so he wouldn’t do bad things anymore.« Finn looked down. »...but that’s not right, is it? The king was good, and… and the Master’s bad.«

»But that doesn’t make _you_ a bad person«, Phineas countered, sensing where Finn was going with this. »You’re not to blame for anything he did or anything he made you do. You still have a lot of time and a lot of op­portunities to show the world that you’re not on his side!«

»I would«, Finn whispered. »But once he finds out, he’ll punish me and… and he’ll use his stone and… I _can’t_ help you. Not in his presence. I already betrayed him so many years ago when I didn't kill Fern, but that was different! The Master never found out about that.«

»What?«, Phineas asked, surprise in his voice. Finn had met Fern before?

»Yes, I... some years ago, I met him here in the tunnels. I hurt him, of course, because he was an intruder... but I couldn't kill him. I ran away and... at first I thought I had been too weak, and that I should tell the Master to get my punishment... but then I... I understood that I really had not wanted to kill him. And that killing is never a good thing. Or violence in general.«

Phineas nodded. »See? That's what makes you different from the Duke. You're not a bad guy, Finn. You just need to show everyone exactly that.«

»Alright, I’ll... try to be as brave as you.«

»To be scared and keep going any­way, that’s what courage is«, Phineas agreed. »And I believe you can do it.«

»You do?« Finn sounded genuinely surprised.

»Of course I do. You're one of the bravest people I know. You can make it through this, trust me!«

That made Finn remember something. »...is it true? That there’s a prophe­cy that says you’ll defeat the… the Master?«

»A friend made it up«, Phineas shrugged, then remem­bered the horrifying contents of it. »I don’t think he’d lie though. Yeah… so far, uh… everything came true.«

»Is something wrong?« Finn looked at his friend wor­riedly, having heard the fear in his voice. »Does… does it say something bad?«

Phineas nodded slowly, he felt that he could tell Finn about his worries. »...I’ll die today«, he mumbled, his usual enthusiasm completely gone from his voice. »Or Ferb. And the prophecy was right before.«

...no.«, Finn decided. »You just told me not to give up. And you sang a song and… and everything. So as long as you don’t give up… you’re not gonna die. Don’t say you will, that’s… that’s not like you.«

Phineas forced a smile onto his face again. »Guess I’m not used to actually being in danger«, he admitted. »It’s all so different at home.«

»Can you tell me more?«, his friend asked. »I mean, if you want… you just make everything sound so… won­derful.«

 _Everything’s wonderful compared to what he’s been through_ , Phineas thought, but was filled with happiness once more. If he loved anything other than inventing, it was talking about things he liked - which did include his dimension. »Of course! And that’s a great way to get our minds off bad stuff, too. What do you want to know?«

»Everything«, Finn replied without hesitation, and Phineas’ forced smile turned into a huge grin.

»Well, we’ve got plenty of time.«

\---

»I’d love to visit your dimension someday«, Finn said at last after Phineas had ended his monolog that had lasted for several hours. But he had not run out of breath or topics to talk about, and Finn had looked at him with his eye wide open, intently absorbing every word. The speech had left him completely astounded and fascinated.

»Don’t worry, boy. You’ll get that chance soon enough… as soon as I have won this little battle.«

The two boys froze. The Duke had entered the dun­geons without anyone noticing him, but his steps were audible now that he approached the cell that Finn had al­ready unlocked. The crippled boy turned to where the cell met the hallway and lowered his head as the Duke came into view, and Melody, albeit hesitantly, imitated his gesture. Phineas, however, decided not to show his fear of the man and his magic and tried to appear un­moved.

»G-good morning, Master«, Finn stammered obedient­ly.

»Hello«, Phineas simply added, but didn’t manage to withstand the Duke’s gaze that clearly showed his creepy interest in the boy.

Now, the man looked disappointed. »Is that it? I must say, I did expect my trusty servant to teach you how to address me.« He grinned. »But I am sure you will adopt his behavior soon enough.«

Phineas suppressed a gulp, for he could very well imagine that the Duke would be using his stone to hurt him until he was completely submissive. »Only if my friends lose against you«, the boy replied with as much confidence as possible. »And they won’t.«

»You’re quite stubborn, aren’t you.«

Phineas nodded, this time looking the man directly into the eyes, if only just for the time of his statement. »Yes. Yes, I am.«

»Very well. Luckily, I know exactly how to change that… it’s almost noon. Why don’t you join us in the throne room and watch how I drain the last remnants of hope out of your friends as I defeat them in battle?«

»I’ll come to see _you_ defeated.«

The man shrugged. »It will be an interesting duel either way«, the Duke said as he turned away and left the dun­geon again. »Now come, you don’t want to be late to such a historic event.«

»Duel?«, Phineas repeated as soon as the Duke was gone and Finn raised his head again. But his friend shrugged and seemed equally clueless about that. »Well, let’s find out«, Phineas decided as he stood up, wonder­ing which of his friends would be fighting the Duke… alone. _Probably Fern or Can. They’ve got scores to settle with him, after all._

\---

» _Ferb?_ « It couldn’t be! But there he was, entering the throne room before anyone else, keeping a straight face. Everyone else, entering behind him, tried to as well, but it was easy to see how they were just as tense as Phineas himself. And for him, it had gotten a whole lot worse now that his own brother seemed to be the one fighting against the man sitting on the throne once more. »Why didn’t you tell me?«, he asked Finn standing next to him. The crippled boy only looked at him apologetically, and Phineas frowned. Finn really had not known about this.

Ferb shot his brother a surprised glance, and so did some of the others: they had not expected to see Phineas here. But the greenhead quickly focused his attention on the Duke.

»You’re early«, the man stated without much interest in his voice.

Ferb ignored his remark. »May I talk to Phineas before we begin?«

The Duke grinned. »Last words? Suit yourself.«

The boy nodded and approached his brother - who didn’t let him explain himself.

»Ferb, what are you doing?«, Phineas asked, both con­fused and angry, but keeping his volume low. Not every­one needed to hear his words. »What made you think you could defeat him? He’s got a magical stone, and you -«

»- have this«, Ferb ended the sentence, patting the pocket knife sticking out of his trouser pocket. He added in an equally low volume: »Your father and I modified it. Whoever wields it will be unaffected by the stone’s pow­ers. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.«

»My…« Phineas was speechless again. Ferb had met his father? But he quickly returned to his angry expres­sion. »It’s all about you, isn’t it? You… you could have saved me already! There were no guards in the dungeon, it would have been easy to just walk in and get me out. But I didn’t hear a thing of you guys. Instead, you were all about manners and diplomatically decided on a _date_ with the bad guy just so he’d _set me free_ after a fair and chivalrous duel. And you met my father! You went to him before you even thought about saving me.  _I_ was supposed to meet him, not you! You already got to see your mother, but no, you had to take it one step further. Now we’re all in trouble and you might get hurt! Just because you want to be as perfect and heroic as that stupid king you’re named after. It’s a tale, Ferb. King Arthur doesn’t exist.«

Ferb’s expression turned from hard-to-read into sur­prise - and then into anger as well. But he still was way better at keeping himself together, sounding much calmer than his brother, even though the contents of his words were just as harsh. »It’s not about _me_ «, he replied bitterly. »It never was. It was always about you.«

»Because I’m not a good fighter, right? I don’t need you to fight for me! I’m not as weak and useless as you think.« With that, Phineas darted forward, snatching the pocket knife from Ferb’s pocket before the greenhead even knew what was going on. Phineas didn’t shoot him an­other glance and turned to the Duke instead, who had been observing the conversation with great interest. »I will fight you, Doonkleberg. The same stakes as his.«

» _Phineas_ «, Ferb called him sharply, but he paid no at­tention to that or to his other friends that seemed just as shocked.

The Duke raised an eyebrow, visibly delighted. »Are you sure?«

»Let Ferb do it«, he heard Baljeet say.

»Yeah, don’t be ridiculous«, Buford added.

But that only encouraged him to prove his own abili­ties. »Yes«, Phineas said to the Duke once more. »Yes, I am.«

»It was always about you«, Ferb repeated, and Phineas turned to him in surprise. He had expected him to move aside, not to continue their talk. »For once, I had the chance to be the great one. The one people would re­member.«

»What are you talking about?«, Phineas asked. By now, he was far more confused than angry. »You’re the one everyone here likes. The guys from the resistance, they barely took me seriously.«

»Oh, I see what’s going on«, the Duke stated. »You two are inventors. The one with the imagination and the one with the skill. But nobody ever remembers the silent puller of the strings. They only care about the one that talks. The one with the enthusiasm that can influence the masses. What a good brother you are, not even noticing the oh so obvious.« He looked at Ferb. »I do, though. Fight on my side, and you will be remembered.«

»As if he’d say yes to that«, Buford replied, even sounding amused. »He’s got enough common sense not to join the dark side.«

His friend was right, of course. Ferb’s position wouldn’t just change to the opposite like that. Phineas turned to him just like everyone else did, awaiting his re­action to the Duke’s speech.

Ferb locked eyes with his brother - and drew his sword.

»Ferb, what… what are you doing?«, Phineas gasped at the sight. Ferb approached him with the sword in both hands, his expression as bitter as before, and Phineas had to take several steps back if he didn’t want to be attacked.

»Taking back what you took from me«, Ferb said, lash­ing out at Phineas who had no choice but to run from his brother. »The spotlight.«

The Duke’s words came to his mind, but were they re­ally true? No, he… he’d have noticed if his brother felt left out, he was certain of that. And even if the Duke was right, Ferb would never attack him and change sides. Un­less…

Phineas risked one second of distraction to turn his head to the Duke, and his suspicion was confirmed: the man was watching them with pleasure, one hand placed on the stone dangling from his neck.

The redhead tightened his grasp on the pocket knife. _»_ _Whoever wields it will be unaffected by the stone’s powers.«_ By handing it over to Phineas, Ferb had become susceptible to the Duke’s influence.

»Guys!«, Phineas yelled as he avoided another slash from Ferb’s sword. »The stone! You have to -«

»I don’t think so«, the Duke cut him off. »Unless you want to break the rules and lose, that is. I never said I’d fight against you myself, did I? I might as well have some truly entertaining sibling rivalry. This is the duel, kid. Just you and your brother, no help from anyone else. Defeat him fair and square, and I’ll leave him alone.«

»You’re breaking the rules as well«, Can shouted from near the wall she and the others had gathered next to be­cause of the duel’s rules. »By controlling Ferb, you’re helping him win the fight.«

»I’m not controlling him«, the Duke replied innocently. »He’s fighting all by himself, and the emotions he’s feel­ing are his own. I’m just amplifying them a little… and that’s not against the rules.«

»I doubt these rules say anything about emotion en­hancement«, Baljeet put in, and the Duke nodded.

»Exactly. It’s not forbidden, so it’s allowed.«

»I do not think they believed in emotion enhancement when these rules were created«, Baljeet argued. »They would have forbidden it if -«

»Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve«, the Duke listed, widening his wicked grin. » _Didn’t_. Now shut up, I’m watching a duel.«

His friends had no choice. They had to stay passive without taking part in the duel at all, or it was automati­cally lost. It was easy to see how reluctant they were, helplessly watching Ferb chase his brother. Except for Melody: the darkling’s love for her son overwhelmed her, and she ran towards the Duke to stop him from ma­nipulating Ferb. Before the man could react, Finn got in her way, his small dagger pointing at her. He did not seem determined, but apologetic - he didn’t want to hurt one of his best friends, but in the Duke’s presence, he was on his Master’s side… and maybe he also wanted to make sure she didn’t break the dueling rules. But she _was_ determined, running directly towards Finn. The boy growled something in his desperate voice before they were so close Phineas couldn’t see any details - only that seconds later, she fell to the ground and didn’t get up again.

The Duke nodded at Finn, pleased by his loyalty, and the boy lowered his head. Not only out of obedience, but out of guilt as well, Phineas realized. But neither he nor anyone else dared to get near the darkling, and Ferb didn’t seem to notice what had happened to his mother at all. Was she dead or only unconscious? Phineas hoped for the latter, but he had other problems at this point.

If the Duke had been telling the truth, Ferb must really be thinking all the things he had said. But why would he? Phineas’ own thoughts raced just like he was running. »Ferb, listen, you… I know you can hear me! Just… just tell me what I did wrong. I don’t want to fight you!« And running soon wasn’t an option anymore either, he already felt exhausted.

Ferb finally stood still, probably sensing that he wasn’t in any danger. »I already told you«, he said. »And so did Doonkleberg. But you never listen. I am tired of repeat­ing, Phineas.«

»...just one more time«, he replied, catching his breath as he came to a halt as well. »Please, Ferb. I’m sure we can solve this without fighting.«

»I never got as much recognition as you«, Ferb began. »I used to ignore this, but after some time, it’s hard not to let it affect you.«

»I named things after you«, Phineas argued. »The F-Games, Ferb Latin, Ferb -...«

»That’s different«, Ferb cut him off. »Remember the Beak? The crowd cheered when we saved Danville, but only at you. Even you left me standing behind.«

Phineas opened his mouth to reply, but Ferb didn’t give him the chance.

»You never even noticed. But here, in this world, the people finally appreciate me. I had the chance to save the day, but you made it all about yourself again. Like you al­ways do.«

»You just had to tell me!«, the redhead finally managed to say. »You can’t expect me to understand all of your signs. And did you think I wanted you to die? You know what the prophecy says, Ferb. I’m not letting you die in front of your mother. Or Fern, you know he’d die too. He’s got an important role. But my dad’s not here, and I don’t even know him, and Isabella’s not here either, so if one of us has to die, let it be me, okay?«

»So be it, then.« Ferb prepared another strike, and Phineas stepped backward again. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Or ears, for that matter. _You’ve got to be kid­ding me._ But he had not given up yet. Finn was counting on him, and everyone else was, too. There had to be a way to bring his brother back down to earth, to stop the Duke’s influence. The stone wasn’t an option, Finn had already shown them what would happen if they attempt­ed to take it.

_I need to give him what he wants. But what_ does _he want?_ Most of all, Ferb wanted him to listen. Which he had just done. Ferb wanted to be noticed, he had under­stood as much. But didn’t Ferb realize he already was no­ticed? His friends, his family, they all cared about him!

Or did they? Phineas thought back to some of their in­ventions they had shared with their friends.  ' _That was great, Phineas!'_ , voices echoed inside his head.  ' _Thanks, Phineas!'_ Isabella, Baljeet, Candace… they had all said that at some point. But where was Ferb in these words?  ' _Phineas, that was awesome!'_ Could it be? Had they really never paid any attention to how important Ferb was to all of their inventions?

_'You did it, Ferb!'_ , Irving’s voice echoed, back from the time they had built a shrinking device. As far as Phineas could remember, the self-proclaimed biggest fan of the brothers was the only one who had ever thought of in­cluding Ferb as well. And suddenly, the boy felt incredi­bly guilty. They had done so many things, and only on few occasions had anyone paid any attention to his broth­er. When Ferb had given a speech about the chameleon Steve without Phineas saying anything, the crowd had cheered at only him, but that was about it.

Two more steps, and he found his back touching a wide pillar. Ferb was only a few feet away from him now, his sword ready to come down. Phineas drew the pocket knife, hastily flipping through its applications to find something, anything, to help him defend himself against his brother. But weapon or not, Ferb _was_ a much better fighter than him; he needed to get him back to his usual self if he didn’t want to die. _Doesn’t he know that I care about him?_

Then it hit him. _What if the only thing I have to do… is tell him that?_

When he only narrowly avoided Ferb’s next strike, he knew he had no other choice anyway.

»It must have been cold there in my shadow, to never have sunlight in your face.« Ferb froze for a short mo­ment. He had not expected Phineas to break the silence only interrupted by the clanking of his sword. He was lis­tening. »You were content to let me shine... you always walked a step behind.«

Phineas felt confident again. He didn’t know if it worked, but Ferb had stopped attacking him. Soon enough, though, the redhead found himself yet again only inches away from where Ferb’s sword had hit the pillar, having gotten away just in time. He needed to go on. »I was the one with all the glory, while you were the one with all the strength. Only a face without a name, I never once heard you complain.« That was the truth, but it seemed to have angered Ferb again, for he put more force into his incredibly precise strike once more. Phineas fell to the ground at the last second, and Ferb was standing over him with his sword. His plan needed to work _now_ \- or he’d be dead.

»Did you ever know that you're my hero, and every­thing I would like to be?« Phineas looked his brother di­rectly into the eyes. He knew that Ferb, _his_ Ferb, was in there somewhere. »I can fly higher than an eagle, ‘cause you are the wind beneath my wings.«

Ferb had lifted his sword, its point half a foot above his brother. If he pushed it down, it would directly cut through Phineas’ heart, the redhead was all too well aware. »Ferb«, he attempted one last time, his voice shak­ing. There was no point in hiding how terrified he was. »I want you to know the truth. I do. I…« The despair in his eyes directly met Ferb’s still unmoved stare. »I would be nothing without you.«

Ferb’s anger turned into shock the moment he pushed the sword down.

Panic as he attempted to stop its motion.

And utter horror as the screams of his brother filled the room.

 


	17. To Be a King

Blood.

There was nothing else on Ferb’s mind. Blood on his sword, on the floor… on Phineas.

»Congratulations, you’ve won!«, he heard the Duke’s cackle, but only faintly. He was petrified; unable to move. To accept what he had just done.

He had tried to stop himself. He had tried to stop his blade. But he had been too late. It had not pierced his brother’s heart; that he had been able to prevent. And yet, it had still hit Phineas. Right through his left shoulder, and his t-shirt was turning red from the blood spilling out of the large wound. Phineas had passed out only moments after his pained scream had died away, and now he was lying almost lifelessly in front of the culprit. Ferb.

» _Phineas!_ «, he eventually yelled, his initial shock sup­pressed by desperation. Fear. Panic. He knelt down, pushing his sword away, unable to wield it any longer. Not after this. Tears filled his eyes. »...can you hear me?   _Phineas_ !«   _Don’t die. You can’t. Not now. Not be­cause of me. Please._

He felt someone’s presence next to him. »He’s still alive.« For one moment, the words went past him. But then they got through. »Let me help him. I’ll save him.« It was then Ferb realized that it was Bue talking to him. The only one that could help Phineas now.

»Please«, Ferb nodded, his words barely a whisper.

»One of the brothers has to die«, Bal stated as if he had already expected this turn of events.

Ferb turned to him, his fists balled, his face flushed with anger. »He’s not my brother!«, he snarled at the boy. »The Duke’s right. Your stupid prophecy is a fake. We’re not related. We don’t have the same parents at all. We’re not the ones you’ve been waiting for. He’s not my broth­er. _He’s not going to die._ « He was saying that to convince himself most of all, he knew that.

Ferb’s friends fell silent, all of them. Baljeet and Bu­ford above all the others; they knew him and Phineas bet­ter than anyone else in the room.

»We haven’t lost yet«, Fern announced at last, ignoring Ferb’s words. At least it seemed like he did, because Ferb knew that the accusation of Ivan lying had been troubling Fern all night. He had needed the prophecy to keep going, as a confirmation that everything would turn out fine. But now that it actually seemed to come true, Ferb refused to accept it. Just like Fern refused to accept what his look-alike had just said. »As long as I’m still standing, we won’t give up.« He took several steps towards the Duke, unsheathing his own sword, stainless and glorious. »I de­mand a rematch, and I will personally fight for our side if I have to.«

»Master«, Finn raised his voice, and even the Duke himself was surprised at hearing the boy speak. »...may I propose something?«

»Permission granted«, the Duke nodded, leaning for­ward. In his opinion, Ferb understood with disgust, this was all just a little game.

Finn bowed his head, then continued with as much confidence as he could bring up after the shocking turns of events. »You… you have trained me well for many years. I want to right my wrongs and… fight in a second round of this battle.«

 _We should never have trusted him_ , Ferb realized.   _I thought we could. But he’s the enemy. He was all along. And now we’ll pay an even bigger price for being so… so foolish._

Fern opened his mouth, but was cut off by Can. »In that case, I’ll fight you.« It took a lot for her to say that, it was easy to hear. »Let it stay in the family.«

But Finn shook his head. »Master… allow me to choose my opponent.«

»Very well«, the Duke accepted with great interest. Ev­eryone was holding their breath now - what would Finn do? Choose someone as easy to defeat as Baljeet, or someone challenging like Can? Or would he even dare to pick Ferb again? Finn shut his eye tightly, just like he was clutching his dagger. He was shaking, and whatever name he was about to say, it clearly was taking him a lot of effort. Eventually, he turned to his master and opened his eye with a sudden determination.

»You.«

Nobody said a word, completely speechless. Even Bue stopped taking care of Phineas’ wound for a brief mo­ment. Ferb knew he should be happy that Finn was on their side, amazed that he had found the courage to stand up against the Duke… but all he felt was fear. Finn was a skilled fighter, but would he stand a chance against the stone’s abilities?

The man rose from his seat, tearing the necklace with the stone from his neck and tightly clutching it with one hand. He was furious.

»Traitor!«, he hissed, throwing Finn across the room with what seemed to be a shock wave. The boy crashed against a pillar, and the Duke approached him with large steps. »After all I’ve done for you! Is this how you thank the man that took you in and raised you? That taught you to fight?«

»All you did was teach me to hate«, Finn replied, shaki­ly getting up again and gritting his teeth as he pushed aside the pain from the damage he had just taken, bracing himself for the Duke’s next attack. »How to be your… your pawn.«

»Oh, but you always complied«, the man reminded him. »What made you turn against me?« He prepared to punch Finn with his stone-wielding hand, but the boy ducked just in time. The Duke hit the pillar instead and grimaced in pain - and yet, he did not let go of the stone.

Finn was already on his feet again and right behind the Duke who was still shaking his hand that was surely bro­ken by now. »Knowing that I have a real family. People who like me for what I am. People who _care_  about me.« With that, the boy jumped to kick the man and pin him to the ground, but the Duke turned around at an immense speed, wedged Finn’s leg with his healthy arm, and threw him onto the floor himself.

The boy screamed in pain as he hit the ground with his injured side and something, a bone perhaps, cracked au­dibly. And yet, he did not beg for mercy at all, nor did he let out a single whimper after the scream from during the impact. He was looking at the Duke, terrified but not giving in. That was true courage.

But it did not help him at all, for the Duke was merciless now as he stood over his former servant and cast his shadow over him. »Now look where disobedience got you. I had plans with you, boy. Alas, you leave me no choice.«

Finn widened his eye. He knew what was coming now - and it only took seconds for Ferb to realize it as well.  _»_ _The stone, kid.«,_   Josh’s words echoed. _»_ _...I’m sorry.«_   But he, too, was forced to stand by helplessly as the Duke activated the stone, furiously glar­ing at the boy at his feet. Finn’s body twisted, _trans­formed_ , and he screamed once more. It lasted longer this time, turned more and more inhuman… and they all just stood there, eyes wide open in horror, unable to turn away.   This isn’t a duel anymore, Ferb thought bitterly. Every inch of him urged him to help Finn, to attack the Duke from behind and snatch his stone. But he was as petrified as after his own fight, a fight that should never have happened.   _And this shouldn’t be happening either._

From the corner of his eye, he sensed a movement. Like a black flash of lightning, Melody darted across the room, leaping onto the Duke who had no chance to react.  _She’s not hurt at all. That moment Finn stabbed her… it was a trick!_ , Ferb realized. He had been too focused on Phineas to take care of her, but he had noticed what she had done minutes ago. It had all gone way too fast for him to help her, so he was even more relieved that his mother was alright.

Now she pushed her sharp claws into his arm, forcing the Duke to let go of the stone at last. She picked it up with her mouth, crushing it to pieces, and spit out its re­mains, remnants of the technology that had been so pow­erful once, but was now nothing but shards and little pieces of metal.

And just like that, the stone’s effects wore off. Slowly but surely, Melody and Finn’s transformations rewound, from pure darkling and mid-transformation back to their human selves. Finn was still wearing his clothes that were now slightly torn thanks to his changing body, but, understandably, Melody was not wearing anything at all. There she was, naked - lying on the ground and breathing heavily, incredibly worn out after regaining her human form after so many years.

Ferb completely ignored everything else that was going on and hurried to her. »Mother«, he whispered. «It’s okay. It’s me. Arthur. I’m here.«

She turned her head to face him; slowly, and with her last remaining strength. Her deep blue eyes met his, and her strained expression turned into a weary but elated smile… and she passed out. But she was breathing steadily, and Ferb had no doubts that she would survive.

»No!«, the Duke yelled as he witnessed the extinction of his creations, falling to his knees and desperately trying to put his most impor­tant item back together - but of course, all of his attempts were useless. The point of a blade was pricking his chin as someone’s shadow loomed over him, and the man froze.

»It’s over, Doonkleberg«, Fern announced. He was the one wielding the weapon. »Surrender or feel the conse­quences.«

»Never«, the Duke replied. »But sure, go ahead and kill me. You wouldn’t dare anyway. You’re as much of a coward as your father. Unlike him, you actually tried to defeat me, I’ll give you that. But just like him, you can’t follow this through to the end.«

»Look at me.« The man had avoided doing exactly that, but Fern didn’t back down. » _Look at me._ « Reluctantly, the Duke obliged. His eyes met those of the boy, and he gulped.

For they weren’t the eyes of a boy that had run away from responsibility, no. They were the eyes of a prince. A  _king_ . And there was silence as Fern’s gaze pierced through the once so intimidating facade of the Duke. He was judging him, the man sensed in visible shock. He   _would_  kill him if he wanted to. But he didn’t. And the Duke realized why.

With the stone and its abilities, he had done so many horrible things; and yet, here and now, he was nothing but a helpless, powerless man forced to the ground by a prince, a king even - a boy he had underestimated as much as the one that had turned against him. And he was aware of it, for there was fear in his eyes now, fear that was growing with every passing second of this judging silence. This silence that was finally broken by Fern low­ering his sword.

»Leave.«

The Duke stared at him bewilderedly and didn’t move at all.

»I will spare your life«, Fern continued. »I have enough dignity not to bring myself down to your level of sense­less cruelty. Leave, Doonkleberg, and never return.« His words were almost without emotion, allowing no objec­tion. A king through and through.

And the Duke knew better than to protest. He scram­bled onto his feet and fled the throne room without an­other word.

All at once, it was over. The Duke had lost, his stone was shattered, the darklings back in their human form. And yet, there was no applause. No cheering at all. At the moment, it seemed more like a defeat than anything else.

Fern took an audible breath. »Alright. We may have won against the Duke, but we still have work to do. First, we need to take care of the injured.«

 _The injured?_ , Ferb wondered. There was Phineas, cur­rently being attended to by Bue. His mother was weak, but unharmed…   _oh no_.

He risked a glance at Finn who had not gotten up again after the Duke had thrown him to the ground. As he had already feared, the boy’s wounds had opened again from the forceful attack, and the cracking noise from that mo­ment could not mean anything good either. But he was still breathing, albeit stertorously - if he stopped doing so, it would mean the death of both Finn and Phineas, Ferb was all too well aware. And so was Fern.

»Bue«, he called the boy that had been busy trying to help Phineas the entire time despite all the commotion around him.

Bue quickly spotted what was the matter and hurried to his leader, but not before talking to Baljeet and Buford, his serious voice completely different from his usual cheerful self. »Talk to Phineas. Let him know you’re there.« The two boys nodded and ran to their friend while Bue started inspecting Finn, putting pressure on some parts of his body. When he had reached the boy’s left shoulder, Finn winced in pain, yet Bue continued touch­ing the area.

»What’s wrong with him?«, Can asked, then remem­bered what Bue had said to Baljeet and Buford. She knelt down beside her brother. »Finn, can you hear me? I’m here. Everything’s going to be fine.«

»...I wouldn’t say that«, Bue whispered, facing the girl with an utterly sorrowful face. »Can, I… I can’t help him. I’d only make it worse.«

»You can’t let him  _die_ !«, she cried. »You helped Phineas. So go ahead and help Finn too.   _Save_  him. Please.«

»I would!«, Bue protested, desperate. »But his wounds… and the way he landed… something broke within him, and then his body changed and it all came back wrong!«

»He would not let anybody die if he could prevent it«, Bal came to his aid. »He has always done his very best to help the people around him… if he says it is hopeless, it is. My apologies.«

»But he -« There were tears in Can’s eyes. »He can’t die yet! He’s… he’s too young. He’s got his whole life in front of him, I… I wanted to give it back to him, and now he’s dying? Please, there… there has to be some­thing we can do.«

»Yeah, I’m not letting  _him_  die!«, Buford agreed, mean­ing Phineas. »I bet his wounds aren’t even lethal, he can’t just die because of some random universe energy crap.«

»But Buford, science clearly proves that -«, Baljeet ar­gued.

»Shut up, nerd! You don’t even  _have_  proof. You can’t tell me God’s some kind of math-loving nerd keeping the energy of the universe in balance with a little calculator or whatever. That’s nonsense. In fact, it’s probably as fake as that dumb prophecy.«

»We’re not going to push our luck just because Phineas might not be influenced by Finn’s fate«, Fern declared. »But either way, there is no way we _could_  save him. You can’t cheat death.«

»Sisyphus could«, Ferb remarked. »Twice.«

»How are Greek legends supposed to help us with this?«, Baljeet asked him, then widened his eyes. »And how are we supposed to explain this to Candace?«

Candace, Ferb realized in shock.   _I completely forgot about her._  Baljeet was right. »We can’t let him die.«

»Well, what do you want to do?«, Bal wondered, quite annoyed. He didn’t want to let anyone die either, of course, but for him, it was clear that there was nothing they could do against it. »You cannot simply prevent this apparent law of nature.«

»You can«, Izzy spoke up. She had stayed out of the discussion until now, which was why her statement sur­prised the others even more. Especially because of her tone that sounded like she was absolutely certain. »Ferb, when did your mother disappear?«

 _How does this have anything to do with saving Phineas?_  But he didn’t argue with her; he’d do anything to save Phineas’ life. »Shortly before I turned four.«

»And Fern, when did your mother die?«

»How is  _that_  going to help us?« Unlike his counterpart, Fern didn’t give her such a private information this readi­ly.

»When?«, she insisted, ignoring his complaints.

»...some days before my fourth birthday.«

»Exactly. As we all know, Can’s father, the king, died ten years ago. Which, as the Duke told us, is also when he met Josh.«

The others just stared at her, not getting where she was hinting at. And in this tense situation, it took Ferb a while to find out as well. He just couldn’t think under such con­ditions.

»Don’t you see?«, Izzy asked, frustrated at their lack of understanding. »Melody and Josh must have crossed di­mensions just as their counterparts from this world died.«

»Of course!«, Baljeet exclaimed. »Them not being in either of the dimensions for a split second exempted them from dying because of their counterpart. All we need to do is get Phineas into the interdimensional rift the mo­ment Finn…«, he hesitated for a moment, »...dies… and he will be saved.«

»There’s just one problem«, Fern pointed out. »You don’t have a portal.«

But to Ferb, the solution was obvious. »Josh can help us.«

»And even if not, he… he deserves to see his son«, Can nodded.

»Alright«, Fern declared. »Ferb, you stay with Phineas and your mother. Can, Bue: with Finn. Bal, Izzy, you look for the darkling lair. Take care of the people. Baljeet and Buford - you get Josh’s help as fast as possible. We’ve got no time to lose.«

When everybody had their orders, they all set off to do their assigned task. Izzy was gone much faster than Bal: many of her friends were among the erstwhile darklings, while for the boy, they included a lot of people he was not very fond of. Can and Bue were trying to keep Finn’s condition as stable as possible; if he died, all was lost. Ferb was torn between staying with his mother and look­ing after Phineas, they were lying so far apart.

»Here«, Fern suddenly offered as he walked over to his look-alike. He had taken off his jacket, and his face was strained with the burdens of leadership. But he still cracked a forced smile.

Ferb shot him a grateful glance, carefully putting Fern’s jacket on his mother. It didn’t fit her exactly, but it was far better than staying naked on the cold floor. Together, the two boys dragged her over to Phineas where Ferb was able to watch over both of them.

»It’s okay«, he told them, comforting himself more than anything. »Josh will be here soon.«

He could only hope he was right with that.

\--- 

»Can’t you hurry up? I swear, if dinner bell dies, it’s your fault.«

»I… am not… an athlete«, Baljeet panted. They were on their quest to find and recruit Josh, but so far, they were far from reaching either of those goals. Only be­cause Baljeet had fallen behind horribly.

»Yeah, because you’re caring too much about brainy stuff. We wouldn’t be having this problem if you were a little more like me.« As for Buford, he was still not out of breath when reaching the castle’s exit, the fate of his friend fueling him. But he stopped so that Baljeet could catch up.

»How are you not exhausted, anyway? You weigh far more than I do.«

»Are you calling me fat?«

»I am not calling you thin.«

Normally, Buford would have given his nerd a wedgie at this point, but Phineas’ life was at stake. »Well, I’m not the problem here!«, he exclaimed. Sure, without his t-shirt, it was even more obvious that he clearly was overweight, but that didn’t hinder him at all. »We definitely need to get to dinner bell’s dad faster. He’s on the bottom of this hill, isn’t he?«

»That is what Fern told us, yes«, Baljeet nodded, not liking his friend’s sudden grin. »Buford, what -«

»Hang on«, the bully cut him off. Something near the castle wall had caught his attention, and, not caring about the nerd, he ran off to fetch it. Only seconds later, he was back at the gate they had found already open, pulling a small and simple wooden carriage. It had four wheels, room enough for both of them to sit on, and while most of the part that was used to drag and steer it had some­how fallen off, there was still enough of it left to make the front wheels change direction while sitting on the vehicle. And Buford grinned, proud of his idea. »What do you say?«

»I do not think this… thing is safe«, Baljeet told him.

»Maybe not, but it’s fast!« And before the nerd could object, Buford had already grabbed him and thrown him onto the carriage. He gave it a final push and jumped onto it as well, getting a hold of the steering handle just in time. Baljeet screamed as the carriage rolled down the hill and even more as Buford only narrowly managed not to get off the road - and the hill - in the bends. It was a jolty ride as well, with short moments in midair after some particular bumps, but the bully grinned with satis­faction. His plan was working, and thanks to the open ground that followed after the steep ride down the hill, they were able to cover a big distance and only had to travel on foot for a short time when the carriage had slowed down at last, but at that point, their destined vil­lage was already in sight.

For the last part of their journey, Buford was pulling the carriage while Baljeet was still sitting on it; a far more effective method than walking, judging by how slow the nerd would have been otherwise. And minutes later, they had arrived at the house Josh was supposed to live in, which was reason enough for Baljeet to get off again.

»You’d think an inhabited house would look more, you know, inhabited«, Buford commented while stepping through the door frame - for reasons he didn’t even want to know, the door itself was lying on the ground in front of him.

Baljeet paid no attention to his friend. »Hello? Mr. Fly­nn?«

»...who’s there?«, a man’s voice replied from another room.

»We are friends of Phineas and Ferb. We need your help!«

»I already told you«, the man continued without reveal­ing himself. »One invention, and you leave me alone. I already helped you... so go away.«

Buford huffed, hitting the palm of one hand with the fist of the other. His friend was in trouble! Dinner bell was counting on them. Without them, they’d lose him. And Buford was not going to let that happen.

»Do not do anything imprudent!«, Baljeet warned him, but by then, Buford had already entered the other room, seized the guy that looked like an adult dinner bell with an audible yelp by said man, and dragged him over to Baljeet.

»Listen, smart guy«, the bully said to Josh, his voice getting more angry and frustrated with every word. »I don’t care what you agreed on with Ferb and the others! We’ve already defeated the bad guy, we don’t need you to make a killing machine or whatever. Our friends are hurt, they’re about to  _die_ , damn it, and if you don’t want your own son to bite the dust, I’d suggest you get your butt over to the castle and help us build a portal back to home.«

»Phineas is in critical condition«, Baljeet nodded at the speechless Josh. »And so is Finn, his counterpart from this dimension. We… we are unable to save the latter, but with your help, the life of your son can be saved.«

»Don’t forget Ferb’s mom«, Buford added. »She could use a hospital too.«

Josh still stared at them, probably not even wondering where Buford’s t-shirt was. »The darklings…«

»Have returned to their human form«, the nerd ex­plained.

The man nodded, trying to comprehend their informa­tion. »And Melody and Phineas…«

»Are in trouble«, Buford stated impatiently. »Now would you  _please_  come with us?«

»Do not rush him, Buford«, Baljeet reminded his friend.

»Oh, and why not? Didn’t you get the news? Dinner bell’s about to  _die_!«

That made Josh flinch and stare at Buford with wide eyes.

»What?«, the bully snapped, completely impatient by now.

Josh was unmoved by Buford’s harsh reaction. »...din­ner bell?«

»Yeah. Your son. Who’s. about. to.  _die_.«

»And... your name is Buford?«

Buford rolled his eyes and sighed. »Duh. Now could we  _please_  -«

»Buford«, the man repeated. »Buford Van Stomm, son of Biffany and Bernard Van Stomm?«

That actually left the boy stunned for a moment, taken aback by that question.

»Yes«, Baljeet replied for him, and Josh nodded.

»Dinner bell was my nickname«, he said. »Back when... when I was still inventing things with Mel and Bernie. Our Team Improbable.«

That reminded Buford. »I promised my dad to get you back home and I’ll keep that promise. Just like I’m not gonna let  _my_  dinner bell die. A Van Stomm doesn’t leave anyone behind.«

»...and neither will I«, Josh decided. »Especially not family… or friends as close as her.«

»But how are we supposed to build a portal?«, Baljeet wondered.

Josh’s face was full of determination now. »You know what they say. Necessity’s the mother of invention!« He looked outside the window near him. »You brought a ve­hicle, good. We need to get to the castle, and quickly.«

»Leave that to me!«, Buford declared, shooing the oth­ers outside. He knew exactly what to do.

And so it happened that Baljeet and Josh found them­selves sitting on the carriage that was now being pulled by Buford once again: he had already dragged a sleigh with Candace on it to the top of a snowy mountain - com­pared to that, the wooden carriage and the evenly ascend­ing hill were a piece of cake. That, too, was fueling him: he was hungry, and the sooner they saved Phineas, the sooner he’d get to eat something.

Soon enough, they were virtually breaking through the throne room’s entrance. Baljeet and Josh were running beside the carriage that was loaded with all kinds of ob­jects and materials Josh had told them to pick up along their way.

Everyone in the room looked up as the small group re­turned, and Josh froze in shock when he saw the bodies of both Phineas and Melody lying beside Ferb and Fern. It took him a moment to gather himself again, but Buford took care of that by nudging his side.

»Ferb«, Josh called the boy as he came to. That was un­necessary, however: Ferb had already stopped watching over the unconscious and was on his way. Fern’s nod suggested that everything was fine, and judging by how Can had not yet stopped talking to her brother, there was still hope - for now, anyway. But Buford was convinced they’d make it. They had to.

»We’ve already built portals before, both of us«, Josh said to Ferb. »We know what it’s supposed to be like. All we have to do is make it happen with this stuff we’ve got here.«

The carriage and its contents didn’t look like anything to make a portal of, Buford thought. They were mostly made of wood and bricks, and sometimes iron; nothing compared to the highly advanced technology of the 21st century. Still, he and Baljeet helped their friends as much as they could, handing them the parts they needed and doing whatever else was asked of them.

»We don't have enough wires«, Josh noticed as he stared into the machine's interior. »And air doesn't conduct electricity. If only we had some water...«

»We do!«, Baljeet gasped, taking out his bottle of distilled water. It was almost empty since they had all drunk from it since last afternoon, but there was still some water left.

Josh grinned. »Perfect!« Baljeet handed him the bottle and the man made some adjustments to the machine.

»I told you we'd need that water sooner or later«, Buford said to his nerd.

When the small battery previously included in Ferb’s pocket knife was inserted in the portal and the machine opened in a swirl of colors, Buford was far beyond impressed, and he could see the same emotion on Baljeet’s face.

»Never underestimate a Flynn or a Fletcher«, the bully noted.

»Or a Van Stomm«, Josh added. »It still needs to be calibrated.«

Buford grinned.  _Time to make Dad proud_ , he said to himself as he adjusted the part of the device that actually had to do with coding; a tiny computer that had already been integrated into the pocket knife. »Gimme some coor­dinates, nerd«, he told nobody in particular, but it was ob­vious who felt addressed: the only person he had actually wanted, and expected, to answer him.

So Baljeet gave him some numbers that meant nothing to Buford at all, but he trusted his friend on the matter. Who knew what kind of geography courses the nerd had already been to.

»There we go«, the bully announced at last when the portal flickered for a short moment before returning to its previous state. »Now let’s go and save our friends.«

»Wait«, Baljeet spoke up. »How… how are we going to know when the exact moment of Finn’s... death will be?«

»Leave that to me.«

Fern had risen from his position and was now walking over to where Finn was lying. Can and Bue looked up at him for a moment and moved aside, Can nodding at the resistance’s leader still with tears in her eyes, silently agreeing to whatever he was about to do.

Baljeet gasped audibly and Buford gulped as well when Fern unsheathed his sword once again as he stood over Finn. Ferb looked away and, with Josh’s help, set to the task of putting Phineas into a comfortable position on his back - the sight of Fern and Finn resembling his own situation from not long ago was simply too much for him to handle. Buford decided to follow his example and picked Melody up: fitting, he thought, for the two of them were the most naked people around.

Nobody said a word in this terribly depressing situation - but it was their moment of departure, and who knew if they’d ever see each other again. Which was the reason for Bue to break the silence at last. »Thanks for every­thing, guys«, he said with a weary smile. »And… good luck.«

Ferb simply nodded, and Buford didn’t really know what to say either. Nothing seemed to fit, so he imitated Ferb’s gesture before watching the greenhead step through the portal with Phineas on his back.

The very moment Ferb disappeared, Buford cringed at the sound of Fern’s sword meeting flesh. He followed Ferb and the others, unable to bring himself to turn around one last time.

If he had, he would have seen that Fern was, for once, allowing himself to drop the unmoved facade of leader­ship. For even a king could not prevent tears from falling and melancholy from conquering his heart as he drew his sword from Finn’s now lifeless body.

 


	18. Hospital(ity)

»He is alive!«

Baljeet’s announcement made all of his friends breathe a sigh of relief. The Indian boy had been right with his assumption: they had been able to stop Finn’s death from affecting Phineas as well. His left shoulder area was still heavily damaged, but he would make it.

After all, they were back home.

»We need to get him to the hospital as quickly as possi­ble«, Baljeet decided.

»And that’d be much easier if you had managed to make the teleporter drop us right there«, Buford argued. »Instead, we’re just at…« The bully looked around.

»My house«, his friend nodded, frustrated. »I am sorry I do not know the coordinates of every place in the city!«

»You should be«, Buford agreed, but was quickly cut off.

»Boys.« That was Josh. For the last couple of seconds, ever since arriving on the street of Baljeet’s house, he had just stood there, looking around in both confusion and awe. And Baljeet could not blame him: ten years had passed since the man had last been in this dimension. Now, he was reminded of their situation - about that of his son, most notably. And he had reminded Baljeet as well.

»Right.« The boy gathered himself. »All of you, wait here. I will return home and call an ambulance.«

»And be quick!«, he heard Buford say, but ignored that remark. He was already on the doorstep, searching his pockets for his keys. However, they were not there, and the boy sighed. He must have dropped them in the other dimension, and now he would have to face his mother. But there was no way of avoiding it; he needed the phone. So he rang.

»Baljeet?« His mother arrived at the door almost in­stantly. _Here comes the scolding._ »How was it?«

»How was what?«

»The sleepover, of course«, she continued. »But next time, tell me before I have to call the Flynn-Fletchers about your whereabouts, alright?«

»Right, the… sleepover. It was… great!« _That must be Candace’s doing. She found excuses for everything! I only need to play along._ »Can I use the telephone, please? I… forgot some things at their house.«

His mother nodded, not even seeming to notice the oth­er people on the sidewalk several feet away. »Of course.«

»Thank you!« With that, Baljeet hurried past her and to the telephone, calling 911 while walking into his room and closing the door. The last thing he needed was his mother finding out what had actually happened.

For several seconds, nobody picked up, and in the re­sulting silence, he heard his heart race. What if nobody replied? Or what if he forgot what to say?

When someone eventually, finally, answered the call, the many times of practicing what to do when calling 911 _did_ pay off instantly.

»Hello, yes, my name is Baljeet Tjinder. I am calling from 2718 Hazel Street, Danville. There is a medical emergency on the sidewalk in front of the house, easily visible from the street. Two people, a boy and a woman, are injured; the boy severely. He has a large, bleeding wound in his left shoulder area, and both of them are un­conscious. But their condition is stable and their lives do not appear to be at risk.« He took a small break to catch his breath, which the man on the other end used to reply.

»Alright. An ambulance will be there shortly. Don’t panic, everything will be fine.« Baljeet’s voice must have risen several pitches again, it seemed. Who knew how young the man thought him to be.

The man hung up right after Baljeet thanked him, po­lite as the boy was. He left his room and put the phone back where it belonged, then returned to his friends out­side, quickly telling his mother he was going back to Phineas and Ferb. Which was no lie, after all.

»And?«, Buford asked when Baljeet had joined them again.

»An ambulance is on its way«, he explained, taking a glance at Phineas again. »How is he?«

Buford made an indifferent face. »Same as five minutes ago. He’ll make it.«

»Hopefully«, Baljeet nodded, then held up a black piece of clothing. »You had left this at my house the oth­er day. As soon as Melody is being taken care of, you can put it on.«

The bully grinned when he realized what exactly Bal­jeet was holding. »Nerd, you’re amazing.«

»Say that last part again once I have got something to record it with«, Baljeet replied, copying his friend’s own words from last night, which made Buford snort, seeing what the nerd had just done there.

They spent another five minutes or so waiting for the ambulance until it finally arrived. Two men in black uni­forms stepped out of its back, so there was at least one other person in it, the driver. Baljeet had never seen ei­ther of them before - then again, when had he ever met a paramedic?

»You must be Baljeet Tjinder«, one of them, a mid­dle-aged man with a rather likable expression and voice, spoke up.

»Isn’t that Phineas Flynn?«, the other one, younger than the first man but just as likable, wondered as he set to the task of loading Phineas into the ambulance, thereby cutting Baljeet off.

Baljeet opened his mouth again, but the older para­medic was faster. »And isn’t _that_ Josh Flynn?« He sound­ed beyond astonished while doing his job - loading Melody into the vehicle with Buford’s help - without cease, which Baljeet found quite impressive. He had nev­er been that great at multitasking.

Josh himself seemed surprised that somebody still rec­ognized him after all those years. »You remember me?«

»Everyone does«, the younger paramedic shrugged, gesturing everyone to follow them into the ambulance, which gave Buford the chance to put on the t-shirt that Baljeet handed him. »It’s just that people stopped talking about you some time after you disappeared.«

»Can’t blame them«, Josh muttered, and everyone went silent again as the ambulance started moving. They were even able to hear the now activated sirens from here.

During the drive, the two men checked on Phineas and Melody again, making sure they were alright. They did not say a word this time, but Baljeet and his friends were not exactly in the mood for talking either. They were all still worried about their friends and processing the reali­zation that Finn was dead. That was especially hard for Buford, Baljeet knew. His best friend had been quite fond of the boy whose life he had saved. And Ferb, too, was silent - but this time, he even seemed unusually distant. He had been like this ever since returning to Danville, and Baljeet had no idea how to help him. He knew Ferb was blaming himself for Phineas’ injury, Finn’s death even, but what could he do? He had never been good at cheering people up, he would just say something wrong and unhelpful. So he simply kept silent.

The only distraction from the rather unspectacular drive appeared when one of the paramedics handed Josh some forms to fill out about Phineas and Melody, in the, apparently, quite likely case that they would have to stay for a longer while in the hospital, which did not exactly lift Baljeet’s mood. Josh was visibly clueless when he read through the papers, so Baljeet and Buford spent the next couple of minutes helping him fill out the informa­tion about Phineas whom he did not actually know at all. It was far easier for him when it came to Melody’s paper - Josh had known her far longer than he had known Phineas, after all. Soon enough, the paramedics collected the forms again, and the ride returned to being quite bor­ing.

»Well, here we are.« Eventually, the ambulance came to a permanent halt and the older paramedic opened the back door. »There is nothing you can do to help them now - we’ll have to examine them, and who knows what else… we don’t allow unauthorized people in those rooms, so please stay in the waiting room until we can give you information on their condition.«

There was nothing they could do but to follow those orders - which just meant more waiting. And more star­ing: nearly everyone they encountered immediately turned to Josh. All of them were talking with or at least about him, some louder than others, but either way made the man feel visibly uncomfortable. Buford did his best to keep curious people off, and as much as Baljeet want­ed to suggest moving into another room, he knew they had to stay here until the doctors had new information. The Indian boy passed the time by watching the clock on the other side of the room; he did not like staring at the other waiting people.

Hours passed, during which Buford introduced Josh to some magazines lying around, all of them featuring more or less important news concerning the city of Danville and its inhabitants, something Josh was rather far behind on. Ferb, on the other hand, did not seem to move at all as he seemed to count the minutes the same way Baljeet did. Nurses came and went, taking people with them, and Baljeet’s imagination became increasingly vivid as he wondered why it took the doctors so long to tell them about Phineas.

In fact, it took them exactly three hours, fourteen min­utes, and fifteen seconds.

»Mr. Flynn, the doctor will see you now.«

Finally! Baljeet, much like his three companions, was both relieved and worried as he followed the nurse to the doctor’s office.

The doctor greeted all of them with a handshake, which reminded Baljeet of how shabby Josh was still looking. But the rather old yet seemingly friendly doctor did not seem to mind. The name badge on his coat read _Dr. Scott_ , so Baljeet greeted him like that as well before tak­ing a seat like his friends.

»Yours were the cases of Phineas Flynn and Melody Fletcher, correct?«, Dr. Scott asked unnecessarily, and Josh nodded.

»Are they alright?«

»Well, good news first, no? Both of them will undoubt­edly survive, although they are still weak and will need to stay in the hospital for a while. Mrs. Fletcher is only slightly injured, but in a very weak state nevertheless. She will be able to leave the hospital as soon as she is strong enough for it, which should take no longer than a week or maybe two.«

»And what about dinner bell?«, Buford put in. »I mean, Phineas.«

»That would be the bad news«, Dr. Scott said, keeping his voice as neutral as possible. But that could not pre­vent Baljeet and his companions from becoming visibly shocked.

»What’s the matter?«

»Will he make it?«

»He is not permanently injured, is he?«

Only Ferb kept silent, as usual, yet Baljeet knew he was just as worried as his friends, if not more. After all, whatever was the matter with Phineas… to some extent, it was all Ferb’s fault. At least that was what Ferb was thinking, everyone else did not blame him at all. They all knew he would never have hurt his own brother inten­tionally.

»Something; yes; and… yes, he is.«

»What’s that supposed to mean?«, Buford asked, sounding just as shocked as all of them were.

»We had no choice«, the doctor explained. »His shoul­der joint was heavily damaged. We had to amputate his arm.«

Nobody dared to say a word, processing what the doc­tor had just said. Ferb grasped the edge of his seat tightly, trying incredibly hard not to overreact. Buford did quite the opposite.

»You’re a doctor!«, he pretty much yelled at Dr. Scott. »You just had to put a cast on it. That’s what you do with broken bones.«

The doctor stayed calm. He was most likely already used to such strong reactions whenever he had to deliver bad news. Instead of replying, he ripped a piece of paper off a stack on his desk, then tore it into two halves of dif­ferent size. »Imagine that this is a broken bone. You are right, in such a case, it is easy for us to fix it.« He put the pieces together so they formed a square again.

»See, then what’s the problem?«, Buford asked, skepti­cal. But he was visibly glad Dr. Scott did not try to ex­plain things to him on a more academic level.

»This.« Dr. Scott took the two halves again and ripped them into many tiny pieces, scattering them on his desk. »As you can see, it is impossible to repair this - especial­ly when it comes to an intersection of two bones. They would only grow back together in a wrong way, not to mention that there is no chance of the joint ever operating the same way it did before.«

That made Buford reconsider his opinion, and it was Josh who eventually asked the question on everyone’s mind. »Can we see him?«

But Dr. Scott shook his head. »It will take a couple of hours until we can let anyone visit him. Until then, I sug­gest informing the rest of his family about the recent de­velopments. Should I do that for you?«

Baljeet immediately declined. »You can leave that to us. We have a lot to tell them anyway.«

 

 

When Candace’s cellphone rang, she did not bother picking up. She was, simply stated, not in the mood at all.

Her parents had returned from the museum long before she had received any sign of Buford, Baljeet, or her brothers. In fact, they were still gone, and who knew how long they’d continue to be? For all she knew, they would nev­er return. Because the moment her mother had taken only a small glance at the backyard, the teleporting device had disappeared. And Candace knew from experience that it was not going to come back.

So there she was, sitting under the tree in the backyard, staring at where the teleporter had stood until last after­noon. Maybe it would come back after all? It had to. _They_ had to. For now, she had been able to trick the mothers of Baljeet and Buford into believing their sons were having a sleepover with her brothers, and as for Mom and Dad… they thought the boys were visiting their grandparents some miles away from Danville. But she could only pretend that for so long.

And she had to admit that her phone was definitely in­terrupting her thinking process on how to get out of this mess.

So she picked up, although it was an Unknown Number calling her and it was probably just someone try­ing to sell her something.

»Hello?«

There was silence on the other end, even though she clearly heard someone breathing. _Just a prank call, then._

She was about to hang up when someone actually said something after all: »Just talk to her already, man!«

»Buford?« She knew that voice! The boys were alive.

»Oh hey, Candace!«

»Where are you guys? Are you alright? Did you find my brothers?« Candace knew she was supposed to get angry at him, but she couldn’t help it. At this point, she was simply too relieved about a sign of life.

»We are fine, yes.« That was Baljeet. »To be precise, we have returned to Danville.«

»How - never mind, I can guess how you did that. My brothers.«

»Actually, we -«

»Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just get over here, alright?«

»Candace, wait. There is someone who wants to talk to you.«

Somebody so mysterious they could not say his name? »Okay? Go ahead.«

There was silence for a moment once again. »You… you really are Candace Flynn?«

»Uh, yeah.« But she hesitated. This voice was familiar to her, and not just because this person sounded some­what like Phineas. She had heard this voice already, but she could not connect it to a name. »And you are?«

»Josh. Josh Flynn.«

Candace dropped her phone. Josh Flynn. _The_ Josh Flynn. Her father. She took a deep breath to gather herself and after some seconds, she picked up her phone once again.

» _Dad?_ « How was she supposed to re­act? She had banished him from her mind ever since he had mysteriously disappeared a decade ago. She had quickly come to terms with it, and her mom marrying Lawrence had only accelerated the process of forgetting this man. She had never expected to hear from him again. Ever.

»...yeah. Look, Candace, I know it’s hard to explain, and I’m sorry about what happened, but…« He paused, then seemed to reconsider. »...Candace, you and Linda… come to the hospital. Please.«

She froze, but quickly gathered herself. »The hospital? What -« But Josh had already hung up.

He meant Phineas. He had to. Why else would her brother not have said hello? But how was she supposed to tell her mother? _»_ _Mom, the boys just called. Phineas is hurt. They’re at the hospital. We need to go there, quick­ly.«_

She ended up telling her exactly that.

Minutes later, Candace found herself in the backseat of the family car, with Lawrence driving and Linda urging him to be faster. The girl had no idea how Lawrence and Josh would react upon meeting each other, nor what her mother would say. All she knew was that they all were in­credibly worried as for what had happened to Phineas.

»Don’t worry«, Lawrence attempted to reassure his family. »I’m absolutely positive it will all turn out fine.«

And he was completely wrong.

 

»What are _you_ doing here?« That was the first thing Linda said when she saw Josh. No hello or anything - only this incredibly surprised and most of all... _an­gry_ question.

»Linda, I can explain…«, Josh began quietly, visibly intimidated, and painfully aware of what a bad impres­sion he must be making with his shabby appearance.

She shook her head. »I don’t need an explanation, Josh. We both know what happened. Unless you want to tell me why you came back. To such a place! You’re making fun of me.«

»Mom, what’s going on?«, Candace asked, not under­standing why she was this furious. Wasn't she at least a little happy to see the man she had once been married to again after so many years?

Lawrence and the three boys - Baljeet, Buford, and an unusually deadpan Ferb - had more or less intentionally gathered together, all of them withdrawing from the heated argument.

»What did I tell you ten years ago?«, Linda asked Josh, still far from being calm.

The man looked down. »That I shouldn’t invent any­thing big and dangerous while our kids are still little.«

Linda nodded. »And what did you do only days afterward?«

Josh sighed. »...I built a teleporter and disappeared without ever returning. But listen...«

»No, _you_ listen! I don’t care what happened to you wherever you ended up. I spent days staring at that ma­chine, waiting for you to come back. You never did. I had two small children to take care of! And now you dare to show up again, only with the message that one of these very children is in hospital, just like I always feared. Only because you had to invent in spite of all my warn­ings.«

»I’m pretty sure it was the boys this time«, Candace put in. She felt like she had to defend that man she barely knew; only a few people stood a chance against an angry Linda. Sarcastically, she added: »They tend to invent stuff too, you know.«

»As if I didn’t know that«, Linda replied just as sarcas­tically, leaving Candace stunned, and angry, as well.

»What? All this time I made a fool of myself about busting the boys and _you already knew?_ «

»I have not always seen what they did, but I always be­lieved you, that’s right.«

»You have got to be kidding me!«, Candace exclaimed. »Did you never get the idea of telling me? You were messing with me the whole time!«

»Do you think I was happy when Phineas turned out as inventive as Josh? I didn’t want to lose him as well, and I thought pretending his inventions didn’t exist would help me.« Linda sighed. »But apparently, I was wrong.«

»Why don’t you tell us what happened?«, Lawrence proposed to Josh and the boys, trying to bring this argu­ment to an end. »I’m sure that will make us find a com­promise.«

Linda only reluctantly agreed and crossed her arms, waiting for her erstwhile husband to explain himself.

He hesitated as well, but then began retelling his story. »So I… yes, I built a teleporter ten years ago. But I had never intended on staying in the other dimension! An evil man kidnapped me and forced me to create things for him, terrible things… I destroyed half a country… and _people_ , Linda. I’d stopped inventing after finally es­caping after an entire decade of doing horrible deeds, and I...»

»Saved dinner bell’s life!«, Buford put in. »Without him, Phineas would be dead.«

»And we would still be trapped in the other dimension«, Baljeet added.

Josh nodded. He seemed to have gained confidence from these statements. »Look, Linda, I understand if you hate me for what I did back then. I can’t blame you. You’ve moved on, and… and that’s great. I just want you to know that I care about this family. I always did. Phineas is my son as well as yours. What happened to him isn’t my fault. Hate me for leaving you back then, you have every right to do so. Just… don’t blame me for the recent developments. And forgive me for my reck­lessness in the past. The last ten years… they’ve been punishment enough.«

Linda fell silent for a moment, and Candace took the chance to ask a question. The question that was on her mind as well as on those of Linda and Lawrence. » _What_ happened to Phineas?«

Ferb flinched at that, and the other boys, as well as Josh, hesitated with replying as well.

»It is a long story«, Baljeet eventually managed to say. »He was hurt in the other dimension.«

»We can’t see him yet«, Buford went on. »We’re sup­posed to give him some hours of rest or something.«

»Well, these few hours are over now.« Candace turned her head at the new voice. A friendly-looking adult man, seemingly ignoring the still existing tension between Lin­da and Josh. »My name is Doctor Scott«, he introduced himself, shaking the hands of the three quite bewildered newcomers. »I am here to inform you that Phineas is re­covering incredibly well - quite a fighter, isn’t he? He is on the verge of waking up.« His smile and voice became incredibly cheerful. »I can let you visit him now.«

Linda shot Josh another angry glance before nodding and following the doctor to the room Phineas was in, ev­eryone else trailing behind her.

When they were just outside that very room, the ten­sion between Candace’s biological parents seemed to rise again, and she sighed. Couldn’t her mother let it be for a little while? »Mom«, she said. »Forget about your back­story for a moment, alright? You don’t want the first thing Phineas sees to be you getting mad as his father he hasn’t even properly met yet.«

Linda stared at her for a moment, then nodded at last. »For Phineas.«

And Doctor Scott opened the door.

 


	19. The Days After

Ferb was the last person to enter the hospital room, staying in the background after that as well. Maybe no­body would pay any attention to him this way. That was the last thing he needed: he wasn’t even sure if he really wanted to meet Phineas again, after all that had hap­pened. What if his brother was scared of him now?

But now they were here together, so Ferb took the time to muster his surroundings before even thinking about look­ing at Phineas.

There were two beds in this room; Phineas’ one was the one closer to the door. The bed near the window was occupied by Melody, and Ferb felt incredibly relieved when there were no wires or devices of any sort connect­ed to her. That could only mean that there really was nothing to worry about.

The room itself was not all too fancy: a sterile white was covering the walls and scarce furniture, and there was a TV on the wall facing the pa­tients, but it was turned off.

Ferb noticed the shocked sounds and expressions his friends and family were making upon seeing Phineas, so he brought himself to look at his brother as well. And he, too, gulped when he saw that Phineas’ left arm was but a stump, the entire area of his left shoulder still covered in bandages. He was still unconscious, but not in pain, by the looks of it. And yet, the way he was lying there, in­jured like this… Ferb could not help but think of Finn. _But Finn is dead and Phineas isn’t_ , Ferb reminded himself, once again feeling a pain in his heart. _Finn is dead. If we had brought him into this dimension… maybe we could have saved him. He could’ve been still alive._ But it was too late for him now. They had to focus on other things. Phineas was alive, and that was what mattered.

»The operation went well«, Dr. Scott now informed the group. »He will be back on his feet in no time.«

As if having waited for that very sentence, Phineas started opening his eyes, letting out some tired and con­fused groans.

»See?«, Dr. Scott cheered, then was by the boy’s side instantly. »Hello, Phineas. How do you feel?«

Still a bit dizzy, Phineas replied with his usual smile. »...take a guess.«

But that only made Linda more worried about her son, and she knelt beside him. »Phineas, are you alright?«

»Oh, hey, Mom«, the boy grinned, then let his eyes wander across the room. »And hey, Candace! And Ferb, and Baljeet, and Buford, and Dad, and Dad…« He blinked in confusion when he realized what he had just said, and stared at Josh - who had no idea what to say ei­ther.

»...hello, Phineas. Nice… nice to meet you.« The con­ditions the two of them finally met under weren’t at all what anyone had expected, Ferb knew. Phineas had looked forward to meeting Josh so much, but the excite­ment was strongly dimmed by the current situation.

Phineas wanted to reply, but noticed that nobody was looking directly at him. He followed their gaze to his in­jury - and only then did he seem to become aware of his missing arm. He, too, stared at his shoulder for a mo­ment. »Huh.«

»I… I am sorry this happened«, Baljeet told him, visi­bly uncomfortable and still unable to look away from the injury.

Phineas shrugged, grimacing at what seemed to be a sudden twinge of pain. But he quickly recovered from that. »It’s okay, really. After all, I’m back here with all of you guys, so we must have saved the day, right?«

»Er, mostly the guys from the other dimension«, Bu­ford said truthfully, earning an ungentle jab from Baljeet. »Okay, and your dad. And Ferb’s mom, too!«

»What did you say?«, Lawrence asked, both surprised and confused. So before anyone could reply, Ferb decid­ed to simply walk over to the mentioned woman.

He took her hand that was so much more fragile than his own. The rest of Melody’s body was just as weak, but he noticed with relief that the doctors already seemed to have given her a bath of some sort - her hygiene was visi­bly better than right after the transformation back into a human.

Ferb used one of his fingers to trace the palm of her hand, becoming lost in thought as he looked at the face he had not seen for eight years. Her blue eyes were closed, and she seemed quite peaceful as she slept, her long hair - black at first sight, but shimmering in a dark green whenever light touched it - falling onto her shoul­ders and the typical hospital clothing she was wearing now. She was beautiful, to say the least.

»How… how can it be? This… how…« Lawrence was speechless when he saw the woman that had been his wife several years ago. Unlike Linda before, he was not angry at all, and Ferb doubted that his father would have been even if Melody had been as fit as Josh. That was just not in Lawrence’s nature.

And yet, he made no attempt of getting closer; he only stood there, trying to process the scene. »How?«, he mumbled to himself over and over. Back when she had disappeared, Lawrence had been searching for her, of course, but to Ferb, it had always seemed like he had giv­en up on her far too quickly. Was it coming back to him now? Was he asking himself how, and why, she was here now, after all this time?

Josh cleared his throat awkwardly. »The man that im­prisoned me… you know, in the other dimension… he had found her too. She… she hasn’t been human for six years.«

Lawrence’s face turned to utter shock, looking at Melody as if she could turn into a monster any second now. »But she is past that, isn’t she?«

»Technically, yes«, Dr. Scott spoke up, frowning. »She is the first of our patients with such a record, of course, but there have been comparable cases nevertheless. For some of them, it took several months or even years to re­gain their motor skills and other human-specific compe­tences, such as language or everyday life in general.«

Ferb froze. It had never occurred to him that she would not be able to immediately return to how he had known her. But they would not take her from him another time. He would teach her everything she needed to learn again all by himself if he had to.

»She’ll be fine«, Phineas stated, and Ferb could not help but be impressed by his unbroken optimism. »After all, I’ll be keeping her company for a while!« For one second, his brother locked eyes with him, his smile not fading at all. »And you guys will be visiting us, too.« Ferb turned away in his inability to keep it up any longer, and it was then Linda made an announcement.

»I think it would be best if we all went home for today. I can’t be the only one that needs to process everything… and tomorrow, we can all come back here. Catch up with the rest of your unbelievable journey.«

Ferb found himself nodding at the proposal, and so did the others. The ones having been to the other dimension were all worn out by the last two days, and those only having heard about it today were overwhelmed by the turns of events.

And so it was decided. They all said their goodbyes to Phineas and Dr. Scott - minus Ferb, who still was not in the mood for talking at all. Buford called his mother to drive him and Baljeet home, much to the Indian boy’s horror for whatever reason. As for Ferb, he was sharing the backseat of the Flynn-Fletcher car with Candace and Josh, and during the entire drive, nobody said a word.

This continued during dinner as well, and Linda was visibly angry when Lawrence offered Josh to share the brothers’ room with Ferb for the time being, considering Phineas would not be returning home for some time. But she seemed too exhausted to say anything against it, so Ferb eventually took Josh with him.

The man was astonished by how much the Fly­nn-Fletcher house had changed since he had last been there, rambling about how it had been ten years ago on their entire way to the boys’ room. Ferb hardly paid any attention to him, and suddenly related to Linda’s frustra­tion from earlier the moment Josh sat down on Phineas’ bed. It just felt so wrong… and so empty, even with Josh being there. _And it’s all my fault_ , he thought bitterly, sit­ting down on his own bed and staring at the wall.

»This has always been Phineas’ room, ever since back then. It’s so different now, of course; after all, he’s grown a lot…« Josh chuckled as he continued rambling. »You know, Ferb, thinking about it: maybe it was good that I left. Not what I did in the other dimension, of course… but if I hadn’t disappeared, and Melody neither, you’d still be in Britain, and you’d never have met Phineas and all your friends here. Your dad’s a better husband than I ever was, and… really, Ferb, my son is lucky to have someone like you as a brother.«

The boy froze, clutching his sheets.

»You okay, Ferb?«, Josh asked, confusion in his voice. _He doesn’t know what I have done_ , the greenhead realized.

His voice was just as bitter as his thoughts when he spoke up for the first time since returning to his home di­mension. »It’s my fault.«

»What?«

»I attacked Phineas. I made him lose his arm. I… I nearly killed him.«

»The Duke is to blame«, Josh countered immediately. »You would never hurt Phineas intentionally, Ferb. Not that I’d have known either one of you for too long, but I know I’d never hurt your mother. And the bond between you two… that’s even stronger than that.« Ferb heard him stand up, and seconds later, Josh sat down right beside the boy. »Look, kid. I’ve done horrible things. Things I… I don’t even want to remember. But I do. And I’ll be hon­est and tell you that whatever you did… it’s gonna haunt you for years. I know it does, no matter how much you try to forget… but you kids made me realize one thing. Bad stuff happens, stuff you just can’t prevent. Do you think I’d have created the stone if I’d known what the Duke would be using it for? Of course not. But I did it anyway, and bad things happened, and I couldn’t do any­thing about it. I was scared of ever inventing again, but you guys… you made me realize that people need me. I saw you at the hospital, Ferb. _Phineas needs you_ . It’s not much of a stretch to say that you’re the best that’s ever happened to him.« Josh sighed. »Okay, honestly, I’ve got no idea where I’m going with this. But the gist is: you’re important, kid. Don’t forget that, okay?«

Ferb let the man’s words sink in, unable to move or re­ply. Josh didn’t know it, but those things he had just said… they were everything Ferb had ever wanted to hear. Something he had never quite believed in before, which had ultimately led him to succumb to the Duke’s powers. To injure Phineas.

But now he realized that he had to accept what he had done. And most of all, he had to understand things were not his fault.

_Phineas needs me_ , he repeated in his head. _He’s my brother._

He found no words to express how thankful he was for Josh’s speech, so Ferb simply rested his head on the man’s shoulder. The two of them remained like that for a long while, not saying anything at all. But eventually, Josh called it a day and decided to go to sleep. Ferb fol­lowed his example and helped him in the bathroom - af­ter all, Josh had spent ten years with almost no hygiene; it was about time.

It was only about eight in the evening when they went to bed, but they didn’t care. Last night had been an event­ful one with only a few hours of sleep, not to mention the battle and the events after it that had all happened today. Ferb looked forward to finally being able to have a good night’s rest and was asleep just as quickly.

 

After sleeping in, Ferb and Candace did their best to reintroduce Josh to household matters. Unlike her daugh­ter, who had soon become fascinated by her father and his stories as well as helping him whenever needed, Lin­da still had a hard time warming up to Josh’s presence. Lawrence, however, befriended the other man easily. The two of them got along incredibly well, leaving Linda frustrated. She was not yet ready to have her former hus­band back in her life.

»How can it be that your last name is Flynn as well?«, Lawrence currently asked Josh as they were hanging out in the living room. »And don’t tell me it’s a coincidence and you just happen to share this name with Linda.«

»Actually«, Josh replied, »When we married, I adopted her name. Trust me, nobody’d want to have mine.«

Ferb raised an eyebrow, and Candace probed her father as well, grinning. »Well, you have to tell us now!«

»It’s nothing, really«, Josh said in an attempt of getting himself out of answering the question, but that proved useless when Linda showed up.

»Baconmayer«, she stated, not without a teasing smile on her face. »Josh Baconmayer, and I’d suggest you let your name change back. I’ve remarried, you know.«

Josh went silent at that, ignoring everyone who had chuckled at the revelation of his name. It was Lawrence who saved him from the awkward situation: »Why don’t we find out how Phineas is doing? We promised him we’d come by.«

 _Don’t forget Mother_ , Ferb added, but still nodded in agreement - just like Josh, who was visibly thankful for dropping the topic of his name.

During the drive to the hospital, Ferb noticed that the atmosphere was much less awkward than the day before: Phineas’ absence had been felt at home, of course, but they had all become used to Josh by now. Only Linda re­frained from showing much sympathy for her erstwhile husband, but that didn’t change the fact that she still en­joyed his presence after all those years. Ferb knew that as much as Candace, and he could not help but crack an amused smile when Candace rolled her eyes at her mother’s distant behavior.

 

»Can I talk to Phineas alone for a moment?« Ferb’s question took especially Linda by surprise, but one didn’t have to be Josh to understand that Ferb had more to talk about with Phineas than anyone else. So his family agreed, and now he had half an hour all for himself.

 _Phineas needs me_ , Ferb reminded himself as he was about to enter the hospital room his brother and mother were in. So he pushed down the door handle - and walked in.

»Ferb!«, his brother immediately greeted him. »It’s great to see you.«

Ferb simply nodded, taking a glance at his still sleeping mother before eventually turning to Phineas. He seemed happy and not in pain at all, but his missing arm still un­settled Ferb.

»I know what you’re thinking«, Phineas spoke up, noticing that Ferb was staring at his shoulder again. »But I don’t hate you for, you know… yesterday. When it hap­pened, I was really afraid, but not of you! Only of what the Duke had done to you.« His smile became more forced as he remembered their fight. »I know you, and I know you’ll be blaming yourself for like forever. But no matter what you think about what happened, I don’t hate you. I’m… really sorry we never noticed you were feel­ing left out when we did stuff, really! I promise I’ll be paying more attention to that in the future.« Now, Phineas’ smile widened again. »And whatever else is gonna happen, you’ll always be the best brother in the world.«

And for the first time in quite a while, Ferb returned the expression, even though his own smile was only a cracked one. »...same to you. And… I’m sorry«, he said. »For how things turned out.«

»Well«, Phineas countered, »The two dimensions have been saved and we’re all back home, so I don’t see why you’d be sorry! Speaking of which… you could tell me how you defeated the Duke in the end. I missed out on all of that!«

»Of course«, Ferb replied, and he gladly told Phineas what had happened, more than once exaggerating on how heroic everyone, especially Finn, had been. The only thing he concealed from his brother was Finn’s death: al­beit heroic, he didn’t want Phineas to feel upset about the loss of someone he had been this close to. »Whatever he’s doing now, he’s most certainly happy.«

»I hope so«, Phineas agreed, and then in turn told Ferb about how boring the hospital was. That was taken care of when the rest of their family joined them after some more minutes. Josh was looking far less shabby today, af­ter a long bath and new clothes.

The brothers then told them about their journey across the other dimension, as they had already decided yester­day. They left out the parts about their prophesied deaths and fighting against each other, of course, and their tale fascinated and shocked the rest of their family in equal measure.

The only news for Ferb presented itself when Linda asked Phineas about any update on his recovery. Phineas shrugged, stating that he’d have to remain in hospital for at least another week - and that then, the doctors would start developing a prosthesis for him.

That information didn’t get out of Ferb’s mind for the next couple of days. During this time, he and his family, as well as Baljeet and Buford, often visited Phineas in the hospital. His brother was doing great, that was easy to tell, but it didn’t take many days for Ferb to tell Josh about his worries.

»They’ll never find the right one for him«, he stated. »And he will have to spend the rest of his life with it, too.«

But Josh didn’t seem to mind too much. »I don’t see why that should be a problem«, he explained, excited. »I mean, all we need to do is to… well, take part in creating his artificial arm.«

That thought was tempting… too tempting. »They wouldn’t allow that.«

Josh shook his head. »I’m pretty sure that at least half of your previous inventions weren’t exactly allowed by the state. And think of the possibilities! I’ve seen what your pocket knife can do. Now take that, only as an artifi­cial limb.«

Ferb didn’t need Josh’s ideas to get a mental image of their plan. With technology like that implemented in the pocket knife, the applications were almost limitless, espe­cially with some further adjustments. And most impor­tantly: Phineas would love it.

So at last, he nodded. »Let’s do it.«

 

They had a plan now. An actual goal to work towards - and that was something Ferb really appreciated. The days came and went, and they all were the same: in hospital, they would visit Phineas, and Melody as well, for she had woken up eventually; and although Dr. Scott told Ferb she didn’t remember much of the English language yet, the boy still spent a lot of time talking to her… just like in the old days. And she smiled at him, for she did re­member her son. When Josh wasn’t busy asking the doc­tors about how prostheses worked, he joined the two of them, and Melody enjoyed his company just as much.

At home, everyone had mostly returned to everyday life, even though one could still feel Phineas’ absence. But even Linda had stopped her passive-aggressive behavior towards Josh, and in general, the man had managed to in­tegrate quite well. He and Ferb never told anyone about the reason they sometimes disappeared into their room for hours; not even Candace found out about it. Of course, they were spending all this time working on Phineas’ new arm: they wanted it to be perfect, after all.

And so, the days flew by: chatting with Phineas and talking to Melody and the doctors at the hospital, secretly working on the artificial limb at home. And their deter­mination never vanished; on day ten, they were just as motivated as on day one.

After two weeks of working hand in hand with the doctors and some improvements and readjust­ments by Ferb, their invention was finally something the greenhead was one hundred percent content with. Or, well, ninety-nine percent, for he probably only needed to look closely to find that something was off.

»Ferb«, Josh called him. »You’ve been double-check­ing this thing far more often than the word ‘double’ even means.«

That didn’t stop the boy from frowning at the device.

»You’ll always find something you’re not satisfied with«, the man said. »But if I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s that we’ve done our best, and that’s always good enough.« Josh patted Ferb on the back. »Come on, kid. Let’s show him.«

Ferb still wasn’t completely convinced. He wanted it to be absolutely perfect - what if his brother didn’t like it? But he had to admit there was nothing he could do about that at the moment, and that Phineas hardly ever disliked something anyway.

When the two of them entered Phineas’ hospital room together with Dr. Scott as well as their invention hidden under a sheet, the rest of the family was already there, just like Baljeet and Buford. Phineas was wide awake, curiously eyeing the sheet. Melody was conscious as well, smiling at Ferb and watching whatever was about to happen.

»I believe we all know why we are here today«, Dr. Scott began. »Phineas has recovered incredibly well from his injury. It is time for him to get his prosthesis.« His smile widened as he turned to the boy. »It is often hard for the patients to adjust to such a new part of their body, but I am absolutely positive you won’t be having any problems at all. You see, for the first time, we had the as­sistance of two of the best inventors in the world when we created your prosthesis.«

Ferb couldn’t help but blush at that, but to his relief, Josh did the same. When Phineas noticed this, he started grinning more widely than probably ever before, and the others smiled as well.

Only Linda expressed her shocked disbelief. »You did _what?_ «

»A wonderful job is what they did«, Dr. Scott coun­tered.

And Phineas, too, was eager to finally try it out. »Show me already!«

Josh nodded, so Ferb unveiled what was hidden under the sheet: a mechanical arm completely made of metal - something from a science fiction movie at best, but noth­ing anyone would want to be seen in public with. There was a surprised silence as everyone was overwhelmed, or rather underwhelmed, by the device.

Only Phineas showed a teasing grin. »And?« He knew from experience that there was more to it than met the eye.

_He likes it so far_ , Ferb thought with relief. _I hope he’ll still like it after we’ve shown him the rest._

»You should try it on first«, Josh told him, and Dr. Scott, more experienced with that, picked the prosthesis up and went over to Phineas, who was already sitting on the edge of his bed without any bandages around his shoulder area anymore. The wound had closed well, which made it far easier, and possible in the first place, to take this one step further. So the doctor put the artificial limb into place, and Ferb could see in the faces of the group that even those who were familiar with Phineas and Ferb’s inventions were impressed by how perfectly it fit.

Even when Dr. Scott let go of it, the prosthesis didn’t fall off - and before anyone could ask questions about that, the artificial arm suddenly started moving just like a normal arm would. Phineas grinned as he flexed his new fingers and all other joints, their movement hardly distin­guishable from a natural arm.

»The arm recognizes what movement he’s imagining«, Josh explained, just as proud of his invention as Ferb. »It makes no robotic sounds at all, and we balanced it in a way that it’s just as heavy as a natural arm, so there’s not much of a difference to get used to.«

»Well, it _looks_ different«, Candace pointed out.

Buford snorted. »I thought you’d know your brothers better than that. I bet you five bucks they’re not done yet.«

But Candace was smart enough not to agree to his offer and looked questioningly at Ferb instead. »Go ahead, then.«

It was Josh who followed her request. With his right in­dex finger, he touched his own left shoulder, and Phineas immediately imitated him. In that spot, there was a senso­ry pad located on his artificial arm, and a small green lamp lit up after a moment. »Fingerprint scanner«, Josh told nobody in particular. »To avoid accidental command activation by something, or someone, else than Phineas himself.«

»Command activation?«, Baljeet repeated. That seemed to fascinate him more than anything else so far. »What can it do?«

»Think of a texture«, Josh said to his son. »And say it.«

Phineas didn’t take long to come up with one. »Skin«, he announced, and within seconds, the mechanical arm’s texture changed right before everyone’s eyes. Visibly im­pressed, Phineas touched it. »How did you do _that_ ? Don’t tell me that’s actual skin.«

Ferb shrugged. »Polyvinyl chloride.«

»This texture will stay until you change to another one«, Josh added. »It’s also completely water- and chemi­cal-proof, at least when it comes to everyday stuff like taking a shower.« He took a pause before remember­ing something. »Oh, and we’ve included some gadgets you might find useful.«

The boy tried it out instantly, once again putting his finger on the sensory pad that was the only thing still hinting at the arm not being natural. »Flashlight!«

The fingertips of the prosthesis changed into little lamps. Phineas flexed his fingers again for a moment, then changed them back to a normal hand, grinning all the while.

»We can show you how to take it off in case you wish to do that at some point«, Ferb told his brother, who shook his head.

»Are you kidding? This thing is _amazing_ ! You guys are the best.«

_He likes it_ , Ferb thought, still a little surprised.

_You really thought he wouldn’t?_ His eyes met those of his mother, who was smiling proudly at him.

And now he, too, found it hard to conceal a happy expression.

 

Two days later, Phineas’ family visited him once again, everyone being far more cheerful than on the many days before. The boy was already waiting for them, wearing one of the t-shirts Linda had brought him which was also conveniently covering the sensory pad. Melody was awake as well; there was almost no sign of her not having been human for six years - other than still not saying much. But they all knew Ferb; the fact that his mother was not very talkative either was something most of them simply shrugged off.

»Well, it is time«, Dr. Scott announced. »...oh, who am I kidding, you’ll come back for Mrs. Fletcher anyway. No need for permanent goodbyes yet.« He chuckled. »And Josh, you definitely have to send me your notes on the prosthesis you built. Leaving out some of the things I’m sure not all patients would need, this invention could change lives!«

Josh blushed slightly. »Er, it’s what I do.«

»We’ll send the files your way«, Lawrence replied for him.

They all said their - temporary - goodbyes to Dr. Scott and Melody, and Ferb could tell that Candace was somewhat looking forward to the boys’ big ideas again, after several weeks of not having had any of those - although she had yet to find out whether it would still be the same, now that she knew Linda was aware of those inventions anyway. Still, she was glad to have her brother back.

She patted Phineas on the back. »Let’s go home.«

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutouts to a certain friend of mine whose last name I was allowed to translate and use regarding Josh's ridiculous last name. It's just as odd in German.


	20. Return to Firestone Castle

At last, everything had returned to normal.

That thought surprised Candace. After all, things couldn’t be more different from the way they had been in the beginning of summer: Phineas had an artificial arm, their mother knew about their inventions, and the Flynn-Fletcher house was inhabited by two more people than usual, no one less than Candace’s own biological father and her stepfather’s former wife. Melody had left the hospital only three days after Phineas had returned home, and just like Josh, she had integrated so well that it all seemed perfectly normal at this point.

Sure, she still needed help doing a lot of things, and she still didn’t speak at all - even though Ferb assured Can­dace that she had a beautiful voice -, but the boys and Josh built all kinds of contraptions to help her perform various tasks and Candace contributed as much as possi­ble as well. She enjoyed living with a female that wasn’t her mother, and she could tell that Melody liked spending time with her too. The girl had three inventors to look af­ter now, but things were much less exhausting now that she knew that her mother was aware of everything.

Mom had accepted Josh back in her life as well, and all kinds of fear that she and Josh, or Dad and Melody, would end up back together were unfounded. They were just one big happy family. And with two people like Josh and Melody around, no one could tell what the next day might be having in store.

Apparently, the ringing of the doorbell.

»I’ll go«, Candace volunteered, being closest to the door anyway. Who might it be? Maybe it was Jeremy, and he wanted to surprise her! With a new song just for her, or with a romantic date… yeah, she hadn’t heard of him in a while. It _had_ to be him. So she opened the door, trying to hide her more than happy grin under a casu­al _»_ _Oh, hi, Jeremy! What are you doing here?«_ expres­sion.

But standing in front of her... was Baljeet.

»Oh, hi, Baljeet. What are you doing here?« Well, at least she _did_ sound casual now. And audibly disappoint­ed.

But the boy didn’t seem to care. »I need to talk to your brothers. It is very important.«

»Suit yourself«, she shrugged, leading Baljeet into the living room where Linda was currently teaching Melody several different yoga positions to train her motor skills and balance. Upon seeing Baljeet, the women quickly re­turned to a standing position, and Melody smiled at the newcomer. The boy seemed visibly flustered, and Can­dace couldn’t blame him: it was the first time he saw Melody outside the hospital, and the woman truly had a gorgeous smile.

»Hey, Baljeet!« Phineas had noticed his friend through the glass door connecting the room with the backyard and was now coming inside with Ferb and Josh. »What’s up?«

»Well«, Baljeet began. »Five minutes and forty-eight seconds ago, I found this outside my house.« He revealed a letter made of yellowed paper, reading  ' _To Phineas and Ferb'_ on its back. It did not seem to have a sender, but it had been sealed - literally, with a red seal bearing the em­blem of an eagle wielding a sword in its talons.

Phineas was already about to open the letter, but Lawrence entered the room just in time. »Don’t!« He hur­ried over to the others, getting a hold of the paper. As an antiques dealer, he was especially interested in the letter itself. »This letter appears to be from the Middle Ages, judging by its appearance - that is, of course, putting aside the fact that the seal has only been impressed re­cently. It’s made of red wax, so the letter is of royal ori­gin… but no coat of arms I’m familiar with.«

Phineas exchanged a knowing look with his brother, the exact kind of expression Candace used to despise. But by now, she had taken a more relaxed approach on the matter of the boys’ shenanigans. »I think we know who it’s from«, the redhead grinned, taking the letter back and breaking the seal, much to Lawrence’s dismay.

»Read it out!«, Candace demanded, curious about the letter’s contents but unable to see anything thanks to the many people all wanting to know what it read.

Lawrence retrieved the letter again, adjusted his glass­es, and cleared his throat.

 

_»Dear Phineas, dear Ferb,_

_I hope you and your friends and family are doing well. Over here, life has returned to normal, if one can call it that. There has been no sign of Doonkleberg ever since you left, and we continue doing our best in integrating all the former darklings into normal life again. It’s hard, of course, but I think we’re doing a pretty good job._

_But the reason for writing you is another. It has been a long time since we last saw each other, and we have not yet had a proper celebration of our victory. Hence, we invite you to return to Firestone Castle in order to have a proper finale of our great adventure. Of course, you are more than welcome to bring everyone that has contrib­uted to our achievements - our sincere thanks are in or­der for all of you. I would also love to meet the Me from your world, Candace, if that is possible. Either way, we are planning on hosting quite an event this afternoon and would love to see you there._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Can_

_P.S. Sorry it’s not Fern writing you. Let’s just say he’s busy with other things right now._

_P.P.S. I know this letter must seem pretty old-fashioned to the standards of your dimension. Still, I hope you liked the royal seal I put on it. Not needed, of course, but hey. It looks nice.«_

 

»Sounds like I know what we’re gonna do today!«, Phineas exclaimed excitedly. »It’s been ages since our adventure, I can’t wait to meet our friends again.«

»Yeah, and I can’t wait to meet them in the first place«, Candace nodded, still surprised by the fact that Can, the other Her, actually wanted to get to know her.

»I will call Buford«, Baljeet offered. »We should not leave him out of this.«

»Definitely not«, Josh agreed. He liked the bully, espe­cially because of their first encounter which he had de­scribed to the family when the boys had been retelling their story almost a month ago. »And boys, we should start building a new teleporter immediately. We don’t want to be late!«

So everyone began doing what they had said they’d do, and Candace was left wondering whether she should dress up for the ‘proper finale’. She was merely staring at her wardrobe when somebody else entered the room.

»Looking good.«

Candace froze. She didn’t know this voice. It was soft, a little timid, and female. The girl turned her head: it was Melody, standing in the door, wearing a smile that only made her all the more beautiful. And she had actually said something! That was reason enough to leave Can­dace taken aback for some moments.

»I’m wearing my normal clothes«, she eventually replied skeptically, gathering herself. _That’s easy for her to say. She’s gorgeous no matter what._

Melody only shrugged, still smiling, and left the room again.

_She’s even as vague as her son._ Candace sighed. But she couldn’t just go in her normal clothes, could she?

Then again, who was she trying to impress, anyway? Her brothers? Her dad? Herself from the other dimen­sion? No, only _herself_ . The others all wouldn’t mind if she’d just go in her normal clothes, so why should _she_ mind?

_Melody’s right_ , she realized. _I just have to be myself._

So she only put on some fresh makeup before returning downstairs where the others were already waiting.

»We’ll skip lunch«, Phineas explained, and Buford, who had arrived by now, nodded, grinning.

»Who knows what a big buffet they’ve prepared for us!«

»Don’t go on any more life-threatening adventures, okay?«, Linda reminded them with a hint of worry in her voice, ignoring Buford’s comment that was rather unlike­ly to happen. »I’m looking at you, Josh.«

»Actually…«, the man spoke up, scratching his neck awkwardly. »I’m leaving.«

»Wait, what?« That surprised Candace as much as her mother. More than that: she had really come to like her biological father, he couldn’t just go!

»I’m leaving«, he repeated, still visibly uncomfortable. »Melody as well.«

Ferb froze and widened his eyes - not even he seemed to have known about this plan.

»We didn’t want you to make a big fuss about it«, Josh went on. »That’s… that’s why we didn’t tell anyone. And don’t get me wrong, you’ve been great and all, really, I _loved_ hanging out with my kids again. But… Melody and I, we’ve been thinking of leaving the entire time, honestly. We’re not needed here.«

Phineas opened his mouth in response, and even Ferb wanted to say something against Josh’s last statement. But the man shook his head.

»No, kids. It’s been fun, of course, but we haven’t been here for ages. You’re asking too much of Melody. She’s not yet ready to cope with this complex world again, she told me so herself.«

»...thank you, all of you«, the woman nodded now that everyone was looking at her. She was sitting on a chair; longer periods of standing or walking still exhausted her. »I mean it! But I… I need a place where…«

»Where she’s no burden, but an enrichment«, Josh completed the sentence for her. »You got along without us for years, we’re not contributing much to this world at this point. That’s why we’ve decided to return to the oth­er dimension. Their world is in ruins… they need us there.«

»They could really use some good inventors over there«, Phineas realized. »And it’s not like we couldn’t visit each other.«

»Yeah, that’s not much of a problem with those tele­porters«, Buford agreed.

»I promise we’ll come visit you from time to time«, Josh quickly said before walking towards the newly built teleporter in the backyard - with a bag he must have al­ready packed. Candace assumed that the few belongings of himself and Melody were in there, they didn’t need two bags with the little luggage they had. »I’ll be back sooner than last time«, he told Linda in particular, look­ing back at everyone else. »Come on, guys. Let’s go.«

_Way to get out of an awkward situation, dad._

»Thank you… for everything«, Melody said once more, smiling her gorgeous smile at Lawrence who then gained a quite jealous glare from Linda after bidding his farewell to his former wife with a courtly and totally British kiss on her hand.

For the kids, it wasn’t time for goodbyes yet, so Can­dace only waved at Linda and Lawrence before following the others through the portal.

 

She definitely hadn’t expected her journey to the other dimension to start with a hike up a huge hill.

»We should’ve taken the tunnels«, Buford complained. »They’re not as steep.«

»We’re not in danger anymore«, Phineas shrugged, leading the way. »There’s no reason for not taking the obvious path - and it’s not _that_ hard.«

»And we are almost there«, Baljeet agreed.

Right after saying this, Candace and the others flinched as an excited squeal broke the silence of their surround­ings. It was coming from a small and chubby boy running right toward them, and at his speed, he definitely wouldn’t be able to come to a halt in time.

Buford took care of that, catching the boy who really had problems slowing down after coming close enough. The boy with curly brown hair giggled, and Buford had a grin spreading across his entire face.

»Heeey!«, the bully exclaimed. »You got stronger since last time, didn’t you?«

The other boy ignored his question. »You’re back! You actually came!«

»Of course we did, what did you expect?« Buford tou­sled the boy’s hair. »There’s no way I’m missing out on seeing Little Me again.«

Candace blinked. Now that Buford mentioned it, the small boy did have some similarities to the bully’s ap­pearance. She had already heard about his look-alike, Bue or something, not being as tough as Buford, but ac­tually meeting this boy still was pretty unexpected.

Now, the boy seemed to have realized that he should greet the others as well. »Phineas, you’re alright! I’m so glad your arm’s fine after all.«

»Er, more or less«, Phineas teased. »I’ll tell you later. Right now, meet my sister, Candace.«

The girl actually found herself blushing at the mention of her name, then just waved at the small boy staring at her in… awe? »Um, hey.«

»That’s so cool!« was the reply she received. »The oth­ers told me about you already!«

»Oh, did they?« She glared at Phineas, who only shrugged innocently, although she just knew he was be­hind that. »Well, that’s… great, I guess?«

The small boy nodded. »We should go to the others, they’ll love seeing all of you again! Come on!« And with that, he already ran back up the hill.

Buford actually sounded quite proud. »And he hasn’t changed a bit.«

Phineas chuckled. »That was Bue, by the way«, he told his sister. »Now let’s do what he said and meet the oth­ers!«

_Including Can_ , Candace thought. _If she’s as great as they described her…_

But meeting her counterpart from this world had to wait for now: Candace couldn’t help but make some fas­cinated sounds as she walked through the giant gate of Firestone Castle, a place like straight from a fairy-tale. Okay, a bit less sparkly and without knights to swoon over, but it was a start.

»They’re back!«, she heard Bue’s excited shouts. »Bal, they’re back!«

»Hold your horses, I am coming.« The new voice was deep, with an accent much like Baljeet’s. It belonged to a dark-skinned boy looking more mature than he actually was, jumping down from an elevated area of the castle’s inner ward as if it was nothing. He wasn’t ugly, Candace had to admit, but distant and mysterious foreigners weren’t her type anyway. She was more into handsome blond guitar players like Jeremy - her boyfriend, after all.

Now, the stranger had arrived in front of them, muster­ing the group. He bowed his head. »I am glad to find all of you in good condition, just like it is a pleasure to cross paths with you once again.«

»Well, he got even more manner-y since last time«, Bu­ford stated, but Baljeet immediately defended the strange boy he bore almost no resemblance to - yet ironically, he was supposed to be that guy’s look-alike.

»At least he _has_ some manners, unlike you.« He turned to the stranger. »It is nice to see you as well, Bal.«

»Yeah, how are things over here?«, Josh asked.

»Complicated«, Bal merely stated, quickly dropping the topic. »You must be Candace. Call me Bal. It is a pleasure, I have heard many great things of you.«

»Same to you«, the girl replied, quite astonished by how this boy managed to be even more unnecessarily for­mal than Baljeet. Well, at least he didn’t attempt to kiss her hand or something.

»Sounds like someone wasn't all that successful«, Buford grinned. Bal glared at him, but seemed more embarrassed than anything else.

»Huh?« Candace turned to the bully, not getting what was going on.

He just shrugged. »Bal's been having a serious crush on this world's You. Told him to finally admit it and stuff. If she returned his feelings, he'd have acted differently around you, I'm pretty sure of that.«

Bal sighed. »Can we not talk about this in public, please? It is true that it... did not go that well, but not everyone needs to know the details.«

»Where’s Finn?«, Phineas changed the topic in an attempt to get Bal out of the embarrassing situation. »I’d love to see him again!«

There was an awkward silence after that, as if that topic made Bal, and the others as well, just as uncomfortable.

Josh went on, sounding just as forced. »...you can lead us to him, surely?«

Reluctantly, Bal nodded. »Bue, tell Can they have ar­rived. The others, follow me.«

Bue didn’t seem to mind that. »See you later!«, he said, running off into the castle.

The group then followed Baljeet’s look-alike, and the silence between them made Candace just as uncomfort­able as the others seemed to be. Only Phineas appeared simply confused, and Candace could relate. Had he said something wrong? Sure, they had told her of the bad life Finn had had, about his injuries… but that was nothing to be this awkward about.

It turned even more suspicious when Bal led them through a hidden passage seemingly leading into the hill itself. He didn’t bother lighting a candle. »It is only a short distance. Hold onto each other if necessary, but it really will not take long.«

And he was right: after only a couple of steps and a bend they passed by feeling their way along the stony wall, there was light in front of them. Coming closer, they saw the silhouette of a bench. Two people were sit­ting on it, an adult and a child, by the looks of it. But even from a distance, they seemed oddly… stiff.

Once near enough, Candace froze. The two figures on the bench weren’t people - but statues. Incredibly lifelike ones… of a man almost identical to Josh, and a boy al­most identical to Phineas if one ignored the large wound covering his face and his missing arm and eye.

»What…«, Phineas spoke up, his voice but a whisper, unable to comprehend what was going on.

»This was the favorite place of Can’s father when he was alive«, Bal explained. »His memorial has been here ever since shortly after his death. Can thought it fitting to bury her brother here as well.«

»...no.« Phineas’ eyes widened even more before he turned to his own brother. »Why didn’t you tell me? That… that he’s _dead_ ?«

»We did not want to upset you«, Baljeet told him, but Phineas didn’t seem to care.

»He’s dead!«, he repeated, tears in his eyes now. »He’s dead, and I’m alive, and…«

»And we cheated nature for that to happen, you should be grateful«, Buford replied. »Really, man, we saved your life.«

»I was _supposed_ to die!«, Phineas insisted. »I should’ve died with Finn, this… this is just unfair.«

»Don’t say that!«, Candace immediately exclaimed. »Phineas, that’s nonsense. Look, I've never met Finn, and I'm sorry about that, but do you think he’d ap­prove of you saying that? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t.«

Ferb nodded. »He didn’t know he would die, but I would still consider it a heroic sacrifice.«

»He got everything he had always wanted«, Phineas said. »Friends and courage and fun and _life_ and…«

»A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.« Ferb smiled sadly at where his friend had been buried.

»Whoever made this still didn’t have to include his wounds«, Candace put in. The statue of Finn was smil­ing; in her opinion, the wounds completely ruined the im­age.

But Phineas shook his head. »Actually... I think that’s what he’d have wanted.«

»Yeah«, Buford agreed. »He was bearing them like a man.«

»And what a lovely view.« That was Melody. She had sat down in front of the bench, looking ahead. One could see forests from here, a river, a distant mountain… the whole world at one’s feet. »All the places he had always wanted to visit.« Melody knew Finn better than all of them, Candace was aware of that. Her brothers had told her how the erstwhile darkling had developed a close bond to the boy after spending many years with him - so they let her have this private moment with her good friend. Had she known about his death before this? Probably not.

»What kind of material is this?«, Baljeet now asked his look-alike. »And who made this? It is a very detailed and high-quality sculpture.«

»Flint«, Bal explained, looking down. He actually seemed quite embarrassed. »And… I did.«

»You’re kidding me«, Buford replied, and he was not the only surprised one. Candace, too, had expected some kind of craftsman to have created such a thing, not a twelve-year-old boy. Not one that wasn’t Phineas or Ferb, anyway.

»No, I… I have always enjoyed carving and sculptur­ing, although this… was my biggest project so far, of course.« He frowned. »I spent nearly a month working on this… I had the feeling I needed to make amends for... well, not always having been very nice to him.«

»He forgives you, I’m sure«, Phineas smiled, having gathered himself again by now. »This whole thing here… it’s absolutely amazing. You did great.«

Bal nodded, still not liking the spotlight. And for some minutes, they stood there without another word, silently having agreed on paying their fallen friend respect and commemorating him. Candace felt bad for not having been as close to this boy as the others, but still - he was, to some extent, her own brother, mourning him felt only natural to her.

After a while, Bal broke the silence at last. »We should return to the others, Can must already be waiting for you.«

They all nodded, and so, they made their way back to the actual castle. Bal had been right with his assumption: standing near the pathway they now appeared from was a girl just as tall as Candace, her orange hair tied up in a ponytail, and wearing black clothes that made her far more attractive and pretty than Candace herself, she de­cided, frowning. Still, she could not help but be absolute­ly impressed by this incredibly badass-looking girl that was supposed to be... her.

»Phineas, Ferb! It’s great to see you. And the rest of you too. Especially you, Candace.«

»Yeah, um. Hope I’m not crushing your expectations.«

»Relax«, her counterpart smiled. »You seem pretty al­right to me. And speaking of alright - your arm’s looking good, Phineas.«

»Thanks!«, the boy grinned back. »But it wouldn’t be like that without Ferb and Josh. They made me this sweet replacement.«

Bal raised an eyebrow. »What is that supposed to mean?«

Phineas shrugged, as if this past event was nothing to him. But he couldn’t be serious about that, could he? He had lost an entire _arm_ . Then again, it was Phineas. She should be used to his optimism by now. »Actually, the doctors had to amputate the arm«, he explained. »And Ferb and Josh built a replacement that’s so great you barely notice a difference.«

»True that.« Can eyed the arm that was supposed to be, well. Not natural. »The only reason I believe you on that is that I know what you guys are capable of.«

»Agreed«, Candace added, and for a moment, the two girls smiled at each other. They had something in com­mon after all.

»Well, how are things over here?«, Phineas asked. They had not gotten a very informative reply from Bal before.

Can shrugged, frowning slightly. »It was hard getting used to living here again. And reintroducing the people to, you know, human stuff. But on the bright side, this place is big enough for everyone to stay here for the time being.«

»Then what’s the problem?« Candace knew herself well enough to understand that Can wasn’t telling them everything. Her frown had other reasons than resocializ­ing former darklings.

Can’s expression turned more strained the second she realized she had been caught. »It’s about Fern«, she sighed. »The last month’s been pretty hard on him. He’s not used to that much responsibility«, she paused for a moment, »and not to mention to getting over what he had done right when you left.«

»What do you mean?«, Phineas, just like Candace, had no idea what she was talking about. The others had not mentioned anything like that when telling them about the events of that day.

Bal hesitated. »It was Fern who killed Finn to ensure your survival.«

»But he’s like... twelve!« Candace couldn’t contain herself. They could not be serious! Fern was the same age as her brothers, and he had killed someone, another child even, on purpose?

»That’s the problem«, Can nodded, still visibly upset about the topic. »I tried talking to him, but whenever I mentioned any of those issues, he yelled at me and stopped listening. And aside from that, he’s talking even less than you, Ferb. No offense.«

Not haven taken any, Ferb was as calm as always. »Where is he?«

»You want to talk to him?« Phineas wasn’t skeptical. Just curious.

Ferb nodded.

»I guess if there’s anyone able to talk some sense into him, it’s another him«, Can agreed. »And try to convince him quickly… he’s got a speech to give. We’ll meet in the throne room.« She waited until Bal was setting to the task of leading Ferb away. »The rest of you, let’s go there now. There are some people I’m sure you’d like to see again - though I can’t say the same about all of them.«

»What?« Why would she want to meet someone that didn’t want to see her?

But Phineas’ face lit up as he seemed to understand. »Ivan is here too?«

Can shrugged. »So are Jared and Colin and the rest of the resistance. There was no point in having them stay in the caves now that we’ve got an entire castle.«

»Phineas, who’s Ivan?«, Candace asked. Had they told her about him before? Probably. But she was quick to forget such things.

»He was the first to tell me about Dad«, Phineas replied, shooting a glance at Josh. »And about some other things that could really use some explaining.«

»You’re thinking about the prophecy, huh? Yeah, we haven’t really brought it up to him yet«, Can agreed. »You’re right, we should talk to him about it.«

»What prophecy?« What were her brothers hiding from her?

Buford shrugged. »Trust me, you don’t even want to know.«

When nobody else added anything, Candace decided to leave it at that. Knowing her brothers, sometimes it really was better not to ask.

 


	21. Prophecies and Promises

»Look who’s here, Colin!«

»Well, if it isn’t the kid that saved the world.«

The two teenagers grinned at each other as they ap­proached the group that had just arrived. They did not seem to have changed at all since Phineas had last seen them, neither in personality nor in appearance.

»Hey, guys!«, Phineas greeted them. »It’s great to see you again!«

»Same to you«, Colin replied, only to be interrupted by Jared.

»Hey, where did you leave Ferb?«

»He’s talking to Fern«, Can explained. »Maybe he’ll have some more luck than we did.«

»Oh, yeah.« The teen’s smile dropped. »I don’t like how he’s been acting lately. He can’t be our leader if he stays like that.«

But Phineas remained confident. »Ferb always knows what to say. He’ll help Fern, I’m sure of that.«

»Yes, he still has a prophecy to fulfill.«

»Ivan!« Phineas was still not prepared for meeting the resistance’s healer again, but he was more than happy now that the blind boy was coming closer with Bue by his side.

»Wait, that’s Irving?« Buford sounded quite surprised. Was it because he had not expected Ivan to be so much calmer than his counterpart or because he had not known him to be blind? Either way, Phineas didn’t mind and simply introduced Ivan to his friends and family.

When it was Josh’s turn, Phineas added: »He’s the guy your mom told you about, remember?«

»I do«, Ivan nodded, and even Josh confirmed the state­ment.

»Yeah, I… I think I do remember that. It was a really nice village with wonderfully hospitable people… unfor­tunately, the Duke had convinced me to come with him on that very day, so I did not see much of it.«

»He _convinced_ you?« That wasn’t how Phineas remem­bered Ivan’s narration! »I thought the darklings attacked you?«

Josh blinked in confusion. »What? No. The darklings only came to be years later. Who told you that?«

»Ivan did.«

Now, all eyes were on the blind boy - who could not see that, of course, but still seemed to be aware of the situ­ation he was in. »I… may have exaggerated here and there.«

Buford crossed his arms. »Just like in the prophecy, huh? We beat you there - the two brothers made it out alive. How do you explain that?«

Ivan did not pay much attention to Buford’s challeng­ing tone. With his patient smile, he merely asked: »Are you sure?«

That was something Buford had not expected. Not knowing how to reply, he left that to Baljeet.

»Yes, we are. Phineas and Ferb are still alive and well.«

Ivan gazed at him with his pale eyes. »Does it matter?«

Phineas was speechless. How could he say _that_ and still be this calm?

His sister seemed to be thinking the same. »Um, it does to me.«

»But not to the prophecy, does it?«

Colin was on the brothers’ side by now as well, even though Phineas knew how respected Ivan was in the re­sistance. »I’m pretty sure it literally says that _‘two war­ring brothers will unite’_ our two worlds, Ivan.«

»And they did.«

»They’re still alive«, Jared put in.

»But they aren’t brothers.«

The group’s attention turned from Ivan to Bue, and the sudden spotlight made the small boy hesitate for a mo­ment. So Phineas prompted him to go on.

»They aren’t brothers«, Bue repeated. »Ferb said so himself! They’re not related biologically.«

That actually left Phineas stunned. It had never come to his mind even though it was such an obvious fact… he had always been thinking of Ferb as his brother, he had just assumed the prophecy to be about them. Had they re­ally been wrong all along?

»But what’s with the line about the hair?«, the redhead asked. »Green and red - that can only be us.«

Can shook her head as she realized something. »You’re not the only ones.«

»Finn and Fern?«, Baljeet replied, but Buford immedi­ately dismissed that.

»Nah, they’re even less related that dinner bell and Ferb.«

The Indian boy ignored him. »What exactly did the prophecy say?«

» _‘As green as grass, as red as blood’_ «, Ivan answered him. Phineas could tell from the way he sounded that he knew exactly what his prophecy had ended up meaning, or meant all along, but Ivan rather let the others figure it out.

»Okay, the second one is definitely Finn«, Buford de­cided. »I mean, have you looked at him? It wasn’t just his hair being red like that.«

»...and fern is a type of grass«, Baljeet added. »Yes, that makes sense… so that really does mean that Phineas and Ferb were not the ones the prophecy was about.«

»What did I miss?« Right at the mention of his name, Ferb showed up. But his question remained unanswered - everyone was far more interested in how his talk with Fern had gone. When Can asked him about it, Ferb mere­ly shrugged - and nodded to a side entrance of the throne room.

Arriving from there, careful not to draw any attention to himself, was Fern. Even he was not dressed up for the occasion at all except for the sword he was once again carrying on his back.

Before anyone, especially Can, was able to reach him and talk to him, he came to a halt in front of the throne. »Silence!«, he called out, and yet, hardly anyone but the group of his friends was following the order. It was easy to see how this disrespect of his au­thority was still bothering Fern.

It was then Melody walked away from the group, stepped beside Fern, and let out a shrill, inhuman howl that, at last, made the room go completely silent.

Fern nodded at the woman, for once not getting verbal­ly frustrated about someone else assuming control. He took a step toward her and told her something Phineas was unable to understand, then returned to his position.

Meanwhile, Can had decided to take a seat in the first row of benches that had been brought into the throne room for whatever event the girl had mentioned in her letter. Bue and the other resistance members followed her example, and so did the people from Danville. Phineas noticed that behind them, the other benches were being occupied by more and more people, most of which the boy could easily identify as the look-alikes of people he knew: the Fireside Girls were there, Love Händel, the parents of many of his friends - and a tall person whose face was completely hidden under the hood of a cloak.

»Who’s that?«, he asked Can sitting next to him, but she paid no attention.

Fern was speaking.

»People of Tristadtia! Members of the resistance, erst­while darklings… we have gathered here today because, after five long years, the Duke’s reign is over at last. The source of his powers has been destroyed and he will nev­er return - it is time to celebrate. Of course, the battle is far from over, and returning to how life used to be will take time. But if we all work together, we will become as glorious as we used to be. King John has long been dead, and I know many of you are still mourning the loss, but this country needs a king. A leader. King John’s son - Finn, the boy many of you certainly remember - died fighting the Duke, which is why I claim his fate of Tris­tadtia’s future king.«

Melody’s darkling translation of his words echoed through the room. Her knowledge of the English language had quickly returned to her, but most of the former darklings were still having trouble processing it. Now that they could understand what Fern was saying, Phineas saw many angry expres­sions among them - how dared a simple boy do that? -, surprised ones among the resistance mem­bers - Fern was their leader, sure, but even they had not expected this turn of events -, and a content smile on Ivan’s face. Those who knew the lines of the prophecy all turned to the boy now, for they remembered what he had said: _‘The foe is gone, one brother slain, the other one his fate will claim.’_ Which were the very words Fern had just used. Did he know about his role in the prophecy? About what it actually meant?

Ivan nodded, as if having read Phineas’ thoughts. »He found out while contemplating about his recent actions.«

»And told me«, Ferb agreed. »Which made it easy to convince him of following these words after all.«

Many different voices drowned them out. »You can’t be king!«, they all yelled, »You’re just a boy.«

»I am a prince«, Fern countered, his determined voice allowing no doubts. »Fernando Alexander Fleming, son of the king that has ruled this country after King John’s death.« There was still slight nervousness in his words as he mentioned his name - he knew of the shocked and an­gry responses that especially the resistance could - and _did_ \- give him.

Fern did not interrupt them, so the room was soon filled with a mixture of dozens of voices, lots of negative emotions, accusations about Fern being like his father, the same words Bal had said… and it was Bal who rose from his seat and stood in front of Fern, protectively even, facing the crowd. He looked at nobody in particu­lar, rather past the audience, for he had never been fond of making eye contact. He sounded nervous too, even more so than Fern; Baljeet hated talking to huge crowds, it was only natural that Bal did as well.

And still, he raised his voice.

»I cannot believe what I am hearing. You call your­selves members of the resistance? Fern is your leader. Now, you might be angry about his revelation - so was I when he told me. I felt betrayed, because after all, I hated the king as much as many of you. But I realized, and I am here to remind you, that he _is_ our leader. You all respected him and followed his orders, accepted him as the head of the resistance… why does your attitude towards him change now just because of his blood? He saved your lives, gave you a place to live in, and this is how you repay him?« He paused, letting his words sink in, only before continuing with much more courage in his voice. He was fully behind his words, that was easy to hear. »Ask yourselves: what is a good king to you? Someone who cares about your needs? Someone who does not put himself above you, but even fights alongside you in battle? Fern is all of that, and many of you know it. He is only twelve, yes, and he is by no means perfect. But I dare to say that he is the person in this room that is most worthy of being our king, and I want him to know that I will always stand behind him, no matter what happens. And you, all of you that have experienced his leadership in the last couple of years, should too.«

The moment he ended his speech, Bal turned to Fern. And Fern smiled at him, grateful and moved by his friend’s words. He could always count on Bal, that much was certain.

And indeed, Bal’s speech had taken effect: Jared and Colin were the first to cheer out of the resistance mem­bers that had only now learned about Fern’s heritage, but Phineas doubted they had ever been against their leader. They were just too good friends with him.

It only took moments before the rest of the resistance members joined them, shouting Fern’s name and express­ing their loyalty. Those that had been darklings before simply went along; they did not know Fern and any change was welcome to them. Of course, there were still some with doubts about the green-haired boy in front of them, but they were drowned out by the many approving voices, or did not say anything in the first place.

»Thank you«, Fern said at last, making everyone quiet down, and gesturing Bal that he could go back to his seat. »It makes me proud to see my friends supporting me like this. I know I will never reach the greatness King John had brought to this country, but I will do my very best. I promise.« He let his eyes wander across the room. »If there is anyone against me assuming this position, speak now.«

Many people looked around as well now, curious if someone would actually speak up. And indeed, one per­son rose from their seat: the hooded stranger Phineas had wondered about.

»This is no objection«, they spoke up, and now Phineas could tell it was a man, with an odd accent he could not quite identify. »Only a reminder.«

Had the Duke returned after all? The accent was strange enough, but then again, Phineas would have rec­ognized the voice, wouldn’t he? Yet Fern’s tone was as dry as if talking to the Duke when he prompted the man to continue: »Go on.«

The man gladly obliged. »To become king, you must be crowned by your predecessor in the case of him being still alive.«

Near Phineas, Bal muttered, loud enough for the stranger to hear: »The previous king has not set a foot into this country for years.«

»Let him speak, Bal«, Fern told his friend, then turned to the hooded man again. »I’m sure you are aware that the former king of this country has not been here for a while. Or do you object to that?« There was an almost challenging tone in his voice now - as if he knew exactly who he was talking to. It couldn’t be the Duke, that much Phineas was sure of by now. But if it wasn’t him, then who _was_ it?

The stranger replied by taking off his hood, and audible gasps came from different people in the room. Fern stared at the man with an expressionless gaze, his voice as cold as his eyes. »Hello, father.«

Nobody said a word as the man replied, sounding far less tense than Fern: »Hello, son.«

So that man really was Fern’s dad. The cowardly king Phineas had heard so much about - and he didn’t even seem to have any regrets. As if he was not even aware of what had happened in his absence.

»It took you some years to come back, didn’t it?« Fern still showed no sign of having any emotional bond with his father. Thinking about it, the boy had never men­tioned his relationship to his parents at all, other than his mother having been dead for many years… Phineas could only assume how Fern’s life after that event must not have been too great.

»Indeed it did. But I am glad to see how you have as­sumed control over these people, just like I expected you to. You have grown as a person and learned many quali­ties of leadership. You have passed the test - I will gladly give you the reward of crowning you.«

»You know as well as I do that I left before you did. Don’t try to validate your actions with such lies, father; my respect for you is long gone. Leave before you make an even bigger fool of yourself.«

By now, the room had turned completely silent. Fern’s cold bluntness had shocked them all - and his father was just as baffled. And Phineas could tell from Ferb’s frowning face that not even a prince was supposed to talk to a king with such disrespect.

But Fern did not care. He remained calm and even seemed to take pleasure in showing his father who was in charge of this place. »Your bad deeds weigh too heavy to be forgotten or forgiven. I will not let myself get crowned by you, for I do not wish to follow in your footsteps. And neither do I take you being proud of me as a compli­ment.« He narrowed his eyes, staring at his father with a strict tone in his voice that made it clear how serious he was. »In fact, I do not wish to be affiliated with you in any way. I must ask you to leave.« He paused for a sec­ond, seeing that the king had made no move. »Now.«

His father’s face turned into complete disbelief. He was at a loss for words, and when he did find some, he spoke them with far less confidence than Fern. »You… you have no right.« He straightened up, trying to appear as powerful as possible. »I am still the king of this country. It is me who gives orders.«

The crowd’s eyes moved between Fern and the king as they were speaking, and Phineas could easily feel the suspense in the room. As someone from Danville, he himself did not know much about monarchies, but his brother seemed visibly tense - and Ferb sure knew his Middle Ages.

Fern still showed no sign of backing down. »You are the king, yes. The king of nothing. There is nobody in this country who would still follow you - you have lost their respect when you completely abandoned your king­dom many years ago. There is no reason to obey or re­spect you, just like there is nobody who will.«

»A very bold statement, don’t you think? I have many supporters in this room.«

»Prove it.« Once again, Fern’s eyes trailed across the room. »Anyone supporting him and his actions, stand up now.«

People were talking to one another now, their voices hushed so none of the two royals could hear them. Phineas looked around again, and Fern was waiting pa­tiently.

One second. Two seconds. Ten seconds.

And nobody had moved.

Fern actually cracked a smile at that, but still remained stern as he raised his voice again. »You have lost, father. Just accept that... like a proper king would.«

The man hesitated, but nodded at last. »Very well. Still, son, you need to be crowned if you wish to be king.«

It was easy to tell from Fern’s face how relieved he was about not having to discuss the matter any longer, al­though he made sure to only show this for a brief mo­ment. »I know«, he continued. »And it would be an honor to have one of my closest and most trustworthy friends be the one to crown me - if you would do that for me, Ivan.«

»Gladly, my friend.« With that, the blind boy rose, al­though that made little difference at his height. Still, a murmur went through the crowd. Then, the resistance members cheered once again, and many others were just completely stunned - including Fern’s father.

»Son, this _boy_ …«, he began, sounding more than just offended.

»Is a blind peasant with nothing to his name except for much more honor than you could ever have, exactly.« Ivan turned to where the King’s voice had come from and was wearing his usual smile; as if he had always wanted to say such words to someone this superior to him. He was even more blunt than Fern had been as he continued speaking, with a slightly amused ring to it. »Now, would you rather leave already or witness your son's coronation so he can officially banish you from this country forever?«

The King stared at him, opened his mouth in reply, then shut it again. There was nothing left to say, and he knew it. Without another word, he pushed himself past the people sitting near him, thrust the crown he had kept under his cloak into Ivan’s hands without caring about his blindness at all, and pulled up his hood as he left the room with big strides.

«I actually would have enjoyed hearing you banish him«, Ivan remarked after Fern’s father was gone, facing his friend again. »But this will be memorable enough re­gardless.« He was tracing the crown with his fingers to get a mental picture of it - and Phineas, being able to see the object, found it quite magnificent indeed.

The crown was of a shining silver, beautifully engraved with different ornaments. On top of that, emeralds of dif­ferent size had been embedded into the material. The crown resembled Fern’s sword, Phineas realized, and he had no doubt the two objects had been crafted by the same person.

Now Ivan made his way toward Fern; with the crown in both hands and Jared and Colin by his side. One of them would have sufficed, of course, but it was no secret that they were always doing everything together. They could not refrain from grinning at Fern now that they were standing in front of him.

At this point, Fern had turned his back on the audience while Ivan and the other two boys were facing it, just like it was common for coronations - that was what Phineas believed, anyway, because Ferb had nodded approvingly the moment the boys had taken position.

»Kneel«, Ivan said now, and Fern followed his order. He staggered slightly, but quickly caught himself again. Jared snorted at that, which made Ivan almost unnoticeably elbow him before continuing the ceremony. »Are you willing to take the oath?«

»I am«, Fern replied, his voice loud and confident. He was determined not to mess up after almost having em­barrassed himself only seconds ago already.

»Do you promise to protect the kingdom of Tristadtia with all your power, to be fair and just in your laws and governance, and to be truthful and righteous in all your actions?«

»I do.«

»And do you promise to keep in mind that you, as you are still young, have a lot to learn in order to become the best king you can be? That you can, and should, ask for help if need be, for no king will ever do his work alone?«

Phineas smiled. The message of these words was clear: Fern could always count on his friends, no matter what happened - something the boy had occasionally forgot­ten during their journey.

»I do«, Fern repeated, and Can rolled her eyes. Phineas could well imagine what she was thinking right now: _Let’s see for how long he’ll be keeping that prom­ise._

Content, Ivan nodded, lifting the crown above his head with Jared and Colin making sure he did not fall. »Then, by the power invested in me, I pronounce you, Fernando Alexander Fleming, King of Tristadtia.« With that, and with the help of his assistants, he put the crown on Fern’s head.

Phineas wanted to cheer, but stopped himself when he noticed that nobody else did. Ferb seemed ready, howev­er; as if just waiting for a specific signal. So Phineas waited with him.

Fern returned into a standing position - and the crowd erupted with cheers. Phineas and his friends gladly joined them now, and Fern, now facing the audience again, could not help but smile.

Only Ferb was not shouting his look-alike’s name or cheering otherwise. Instead, he merely stood up… and bowed.

_Of course_ , Phineas realized as he watched his broth­er. _Nobody would have been this loud in medieval times._ And while he still thought it fitting for their current situation to cheer like they were doing now, he decided to imitate Ferb’s gesture. They _were_ attending a coronation, after all.

Their behavior caught Baljeet’s attention, and then Bu­ford’s - and soon enough, the bow spread like a wave through the entire crowd, until, at last, everyone was bowing to the newly-crowned king.

 


	22. Band of Heroes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the complete reading experience, listen to [this](https://clyp.it/pjnzc2gn) as soon as the song starts. The song itself is "Brighter" by Patent Pending.

_They’re bowing. They’re all bowing… to me._

Fern still couldn’t believe his eyes. The room was filled with complete silence as hundreds of people were facing the ground in awe of him.

Of course, he had given speeches to the resistance before; he knew what the respect of many people felt like. Then again, it had never been even half as many people as now, and they had never bowed to him the way they were currently honoring their new king. _Him._

That thought was still too overwhelming to bear. It was something he had never wanted to happen, something he had never wanted to be - but he knew as well as his friends that leading this country had always been his destiny, whether one believed in the prophecy or not. And the fact that he was one of the brothers mentioned in it… well, Fern had always been having a lingering feeling that he would be playing a bigger role in it than just that of a companion. He was one of the Brothers, and Finn was the other one. Their encounter from so many years ago had shaped the lives of both of them, and in the end, influenced the entire quest of saving their world. They had discovered that the first impression could be misleading and that their pasts did not define them. So while not actually being related, they really were, in a sense, brothers.

»Thank you«, he spoke up at last, realizing that he had been lost in thought for enough time now. The crowd took that as a sign of returning to a sitting position, and Fern was actually pretty sure he wouldn’t have been able to endure their bows for much longer. That was just… too much. »I cannot put into words how grateful I am for your loyalty. But even, or especially, after my coronation, we should remember that this would never have come to be without the help of those who have joined me on this journey. It was me who banished the Duke in the end, yes, but I would never have come that far without my friends. They deserve your thanks as much as I do, perhaps even more than that. That is why I would like to ask them to come here with me, to give them the respect they should receive.«

His friends gladly followed his order. Most of them - especially Phineas and Bue - were grinning widely, and the others were smiling, at least. Only Bal did not enjoy the sudden spotlight, and Izzy, who had been watching from the side, still needed an inviting gesture from Fern to join the group. Jared, Colin, and Ivan simply took some steps forward since they had not returned to their seats earlier, and Fern did not ask them to. They deserved as much recognition as the others.

Without having to remind them, the people in the audience started bowing again, and Fern’s friends exchanged glances that showed that they were just as overwhelmed as Fern had been, although they seemed to enjoy it - everyone but Bal and Izzy, that is. And the remaining person sitting in the first row, looking quite a lot like Can, visibly found bowing to her own family and friends more than awkward, but did so anyway, if only to avoid being the only person not to bow.

»You may rise«, Fern announced, only partly hiding his amusement about Phineas’ sister. As usual, Can rolled her eyes at him, this time with a hint of _»You’re a king now, how about acting like one?«_ But he shrugged at her. There were just some things that would never change.

As soon as he had everyone’s attention again, he continued: »These people have all contributed to our victory over the Duke. I would like to thank each of them individually… starting with Melody and Josh.«

Melody abruptly stopped her translation of his words for a moment when she heard her own name, then walked over to Josh. The rest of the group had taken a step back, and without having any idea how personal his speeches were going to be, Fern began.

»These two deserve my utmost respect. The Duke had kept them prisoner for years, made them create the force that could turn people into darklings, and had them witness that transformation many times. Melody was even transformed into a darkling herself. It is no secret that the scars of those years, more mental than physical, will need a long time to heal - for both of them. And yet, in spite of how much it took them to do it, they have helped us win against the Duke, and I cannot say how much respect I have for their emotional strength.« Fern looked at them, seeing how flattered they both were. But he had told the truth; he knew how many dark thoughts especially Josh had had to overcome before helping the group. »I owe you something. If there is anything I can do for you, let me know.«

»There is something, yes«, Josh replied, scratching his neck awkwardly. »We want to return to this world, to use our talents to rebuild this country - with your permission, of course, Your Majesty.«

»Don’t call me that«, Fern immediately said, then froze. He _was_ the king now. People had to address him like that; that was part of being royalty. Which meant that he had to take that sentence back before it was too late and people stopped seeing him as the king he was supposed to be. But then again, he had never liked formalities, and especially not the thought of his friends being inferior to him. There was no way he would continue to tolerate that.

»The same goes for everyone standing behind me right now. Everyone I am not as close with, however, is asked to use the formal address.« Yes, that was a good compromise, he decided.

And as for Melody and Josh… »Of course I will allow you to stay in the castle with us«, he stated, not at all hiding his relief as he was looking at Melody in particular. »We could really use your help.« Fern didn’t see why he shouldn’t admit that; everyone in the room agreed with him, after all.

Melody responded with a hug, and Fern had to try hard to hold back tears. To him, it felt like his mother, the one from _his_ world, was hugging him - the woman that had died far too soon. And now Melody would be staying in the castle... yet another person that would be by his side in times of trouble.

She pulled away at last, smiling at him – and with a quick nod, Fern allowed her and Josh to sit down again. Melody seemed to have realized now that with the speeches most likely going to be more personal than of interest for the audience, there was no reason to translate them, so she took a seat next to Josh. Which gave Fern enough reason to continue.

He called the names of Jared and Colin, and thanked them for the loyalty they had been expressing ever since their first encounter. They really were some of his closest friends, even though they could get quite annoying from time to time. At least they knew better than to crack some kind of joke in front of this huge audience.

After they had returned to their seats as well, it was Ivan’s turn. By now, Fern had completely discarded talking about his friends in third person; he was talking _to_ them now. »Ivan.« He smiled at his old friend. »The entire resistance highly values your wisdom, as you are well aware. Your knowledge of herbs is unsurpassed, and your advice is something everyone asks for in times of trouble. I did as well, many times… and while I could not possibly say whether or not the prophecy was just a spawn of your imagination; or if, or how, you could possibly have known its outcome… thank you. For giving us, the resistance, and the small group that went on this journey, something to hold onto. For making us believe that we _would_ win, in a way far more convincing than I could have ever been. I may be King now, but I hope I can continue to count on you as my advisor.«

Ivan lowered his head. »It would be an honor, Your Majesty.«

Fern wanted to protest, but kept silent. He had noticed Ivan’s teasing smirk, and realized that his friend was just testing him. _I guess I’ll have to get used to that_ , he sighed in silence. So he simply thanked Ivan once again and watched him go back to his seat.

»Bue.«

The chubby boy couldn’t contain his excitement and grinned from ear to ear as he took his position in front of Fern. Bue looked up to him, more so than anyone else; Fern knew that. He was his hero.

»I know you have always wanted to be like me, or at least like many others in the resistance. You were upset that we never took you on adventures, and when we finally did a month ago, many of us doubted that bringing you along would be a good idea. It’s not much of a secret that you aren’t as good at fighting, or as athletic, as the others.« Fern’s voice turned more cheerful as he spoke. »But that doesn’t matter! You showed us all that you are as brave as many of us. You saved Finn from certain death with the skills Ivan has taught you, and even though it… didn’t work a second time… it wasn’t your fault. You did your best, and more importantly: you proved that one doesn’t have to be strong to be useful. You were an essential part of our group, and Ivan and I agree that you do not have to carry the title of apprentice any longer. At least in terms of ranks, you and Ivan are equal now.«

Bue gasped, then stormed over to Fern and hugged him, completely ignoring the etiquette. But Fern didn’t mind and let it happen, until Bal was the one to clear his throat and remind Bue of the situation. The small boy shrugged, apologized with a »Whoops, sorry!«, and quickly walked to Ivan instead, waiting for Fern to continue.

And he did - with the person that meant more to him than anyone else in the room.

Can just looked at him with her usual teasing smirk. She was proud of him, of course, but skeptical as always when it came to any action Fern was about to do.

»Can.« He countered with the same expression. »You have been with me for most of my life, and I’m more than glad that you were. You know me better than anyone else, and you always help me make the best decisions. You’re more rational than I could ever be, and I wouldn’t have been a half as great leader without you. Thanks for that.«

She shrugged, and the message in her expression was clear: _»Well, someone’s got to do it.«_ But she didn’t mean that in a bad way, of course. She was just as glad to have him.

»You know as well as I do that a certain… arrangement from many years ago wasn’t exactly a great thing. I’d never consider you my wife, that’s just ridiculous. You’re a sister to me, Can, and a great one, too. And that’s why I, as the king, hereby revoke our marriage.« Fern took a relieved sigh the moment he had finished. It truly felt liberating - not that he had ever thought of her as his wife, but now, it was completely out of the way.

And Can, in turn, hugged him, if only for a second or two. »Thanks, bro«, she smiled, just as glad as the boy. After letting go, she took a seat next to her counterpart from the first dimension, Candace, who immediately asked her about the marriage in a hushed, stunned tone. Fern did not bother listening to that, so he continued with his acknowledgments.

His heart was racing when he called for Izzy to come to him, and she only reluctantly left her spot in the back. But when she was facing him, he noticed again just how gorgeous she was with her ebony hair and her confident charisma. It took him a moment to find his words, determined not to make a fool of himself. »Izzy«, he said at last, »I know it wasn’t easy for you to join us, especially with all the things you’ve been through. But despite your bad experiences in the past, you still chose to help us, even though we’ve hardly done anything for you to give you a good reason to do it. We would have had a pretty big problem without you and Brain -«, the dog was sitting near the benches, and Fern glanced at him for a moment, »- and I really can’t thank you enough. I’ve also got a… present for you, and I know you’re not thinking too highly of me, so if you don’t like it, feel free to slap me across the face or whatever.«

Izzy raised an eyebrow at that, both skeptical and, even more so, confused. But she didn’t say anything in reply, which Fern took as a good sign.

»Okay, well, close your eyes.«

»Is that a trick?«, she asked now, still skeptical. But Fern shook his head.

»Do you trust me?«

»What’s that even supposed to mean?«

»Do you?«, he insisted, and she gathered herself as she closed her eyes.

»...yeah. Okay, yeah… I do.«

»Good.« There was not much else to say. So Fern leaned forward, took her into his arms, and kissed her before she had any chance of protesting.

It was true, he had felt some strange kind of affection for her ever since their first encounter. She had been distant ever since, yes, and he had been quite a fool around her. Can had sensed what was going on soon enough, and he had no doubt that she wasn’t the only one. Izzy made him feel something he had been supposed to feel for Can because of their marriage and all, and what better time to admit his feelings than now? This was the only suitable way of thanking her, and it wasn’t hard for Fern to ignore the surprised gasps of the crowd. He had never kissed a girl before - well, other than the awkward kiss with Can at their wedding when he had been but a child -, but still, this wasn’t feeling so bad. Quite the contrary, in fact. He was pretty sure that this was the best moment of his life.

The reason for that quickly dawned on him the second he pulled away at last: Izzy drew him closer again, she _kissed him back_ , and the audience erupted into cheers once again. His friends in particular: Jared and Colin, of course, and all the others that had known of their feelings for each other.

After what had felt like an eternity, a wonderful eternity, Izzy let go of him. Their eyes locked for a second, and Fern could see happiness in her beautiful eyes - and the shock of the realization of what had just happened. She struggled for words, then turned away… and stormed out of the room, her confused dog running after her.

Fern watched her leave, at a loss for words himself. With a pat on the back, it was Buford who brought him back down to earth. »Great job, man. She’s totally into you.«

The greenhead was still too perplexed to reply and decided to stop thinking about Izzy for now. He had more important things to do at this point. So he nodded. »Buford, Baljeet.« Buford was already standing beside him; he might as well continue with these two. »Nobody had expected you to join us on our quest, but you did it anyway. You have taken great risks, both by joining us and by entering this unknown world in the first place. And most remarkably, you did all of this for Phineas and Ferb. You are two of the best friends anyone could ever hope to have, and I am certain they are aware of that.« Fern looked at Baljeet, and then at Buford, as he spoke. »The combination of your intellect and your strength make you a great team, but I’m sure you know that already. I have a present for you as well, especially for you, Buford.«

»Food?«, the boy immediately asked, which made Baljeet roll his eyes. A common situation for the two of them, apparently.

»No, not food. Something better than that.« From his jacket’s pocket - he had not bothered dressing up for the occasion, mostly since his more festive clothing was too small and/or too moth-eaten at this point, and Ferb had been considerate enough to return the jacket after taking it to the first dimension when Melody had needed something to wear -, Fern took a letter, almost identical to the one Baljeet had shown his friends earlier today, with the same red seal on it. He handed it to Buford. »Don’t open it«, he warned when Buford was about to do just that. »It needs to stay unopened if you want it to work.«

The bully paused, suspiciously eyeing the letter. »Then tell me what’s in it, at least.«

»You see, Baljeet told me about your father -«, Fern began, knowing very well what the Indian boy had said: that this was a very touchy subject for Buford.

And indeed, Buford balled his fist, thankfully only with the hand not holding the letter. He glared at Baljeet, furious and betrayed.

»Wait, Buford, hear me out«, Fern interrupted him before he could get mad at Baljeet.

The bully stopped moving, at least, staring at Fern as if saying _»You better have a good thing to tell me.«_

Fern nodded. »It's not his fault that I know. I overheard you mentioning your father that one afternoon and got curious, so later, I asked Baljeet about what happened. He told me that your father has been in there for many years now, too many; and I believe him on that. Now, I don’t know much about your dimension’s judicial system, but I am almost completely certain they have to follow the demands of a king, especially the one of an alternate Danville.« He smiled as he noticed how, slowly but surely, Buford started realizing what Fern was telling him. »Yes, Buford; this letter contains my request of releasing your father from prison.«

Buford’s reaction was the fourth hug Fern received that day, and it lasted far longer than the other ones. The bully was crying, too, thanking his friend over and over. It took Baljeet’s entire convincibility to make him let go, and for the rest of the event, Buford held Fern’s letter as if it was the most sacred thing in the universe.

Of course, there was a small chance of the request not being carried out, but Buford was so happy at this point that Fern thought it best not to remind him of that.

Instead, he went on with the next person - there weren’t that many left, and Fern was actually quite happy about that, for it had been a long time since had last talked this much. It was Phineas’ turn now, and Fern found himself staring at the boy’s left arm. Ferb had told him about what had happened, and yet, it was hard to believe. There was no indication of the arm not being natural, and Fern was incredibly glad that Phineas had made it through his injuries so well. Unlike Finn…

Fern quickly let go of that thought. This wasn’t the time to think about that. Not now. He took a deep breath.

»Phineas. Most of the things I said to Bue apply to you as well: it is true that some of us might have looked down on you because of your lack of fighting skills and everything. But you didn’t need those to be an essential part of our team, because you provided us with something else: hope. You believed in us when the rest of us did not, and things would have taken quite a different turn if it had not been for your words to Finn. You made him believe in himself, in the good side of things; and most of all, you made him _happy_ . Because of you, he found something worth fighting for and… thank you. On his behalf.« He turned quieter as he spoke; the image of Finn’s lifeless body still on his mind. _I had to kill him_ , he reminded himself. _To save Phineas. ...right?_

»It was for the best«, Phineas said just as quietly. »You did the right thing. He’d have wanted you to do it.«

Fern brushed it off. »...I guess.«

Ferb stepped beside Phineas, locking eyes with Fern. The message was clear: _»Think of him later. Go on with your speech.«_

_Yeah. I need to go on. For Finn._ He acknowledged the words with a nod, allowed Phineas to sit down again, and continued with Ferb.

»Ferb - I’ll be honest with you. Ever since hearing of you, and especially since seeing you, I had great respect for you. I mean, you were _me_ , in a sense. And not only that, but a Me who actually had it all together. I’ve learned a lot from you during our journey, and I have no doubt that you, too, would make a great king. Of course, we will never find out about that, but I will strive to incorporate everything I have learned from you into my rule, your reserve in particular. Thank you for that.«

Ferb nodded in reply, not saying anything. He was a boy of few words, yet with all the more power to them. That too was something Fern decided to remember.

»I have a gift for you as well«, Fern continued, gesturing Ferb to wait as he left the room for a moment, returning with a sheath containing a sword. One could tell from its handle that it was not Fern’s royal sword of shining silver, but rather the simple and not at all decorated one that Ferb had used on their journey. »I have no use for it at this point, and I know you won’t need it in your dimension either, but I think it is a nice way to remember our journey in spite of what this weapon was used for.«

Once again, Ferb nodded as Fern handed him the sword. In his often not very revealing eyes, Fern could see that his friend knew all too well what he was talking about. The day he had hurt Phineas. But Ferb accepted the gift – to keep it as a reminder of that fight, to make him remember how much his friends truly cared about him. Just like Fern had taken his royal sword with him when he and Can had left the castle, as a constant reminder of his duty to protect those he cared about.

Ferb was already about to return to his seat when his look-alike stopped him.

»Wait, there is one more thing.« He waited until he had Ferb’s attention again. »I doubt that it will ever be of use to you, in this dimension or yours, but I know how much you value what you call medieval traditions. They are still common here in Tristadtia, as you might have figured - and in regard to your actions on our journey, everything you have done for us and your family… kneel down.«

In the audience, Phineas, Baljeet, Candace, and Josh all exchanged confused glances. But Buford and Melody seemed to have figured out what was about to happen: the bully was grinning like an idiot, and Ferb’s mother was watching her son as he carried out Fern’s order, proud of him in every way.

Fern noticed with a hint of envy how Ferb knelt down much more gracefully than his look-alike during his coronation, not trembling at all. He lowered his head, waiting for Fern to continue - only for the young king to realize that he had literally no idea what to say. So he stood there in silence for a brief moment - until a voice from at his feet relieved him of the necessary words.

«King Fernando Alexander Fleming of Tristadtia - I, Ferdinand Arthur Fletcher, am kneeling down before you today to take an oath of utmost loyalty. I hereby swear that, for the rest of my lifetime, I will protect you with my life and follow your every command. I will also forever be loyal to my family and friends, and guard them just as well as I will guard you. Shall it ever occur to you that I am willingly breaking this oath, I will accept your choice of punishment without complaint.«

The room went silent as he spoke, his friends staring at him in stunned disbelief. Fern, too, was astonished by the words that he knew to be an exaggeration - but then again, Ferb sounded completely sincere, and after their adventure together, they all knew that he really was. He took his traditions seriously, just like Fern had said.

There was no way for Fern to even reach his look-alike’s level of epic formality, so he decided to make the best out of his own abilities, trying to remember the knighting ceremonies he had attended back when he had still been a child. Not that it would be any help whatsoever. Still, he drew his own sword, its emerald, the eye of the pommel's eagle, shimmering in the light that the sun was casting through the windows. _That thing’s more royal than I’ll ever be_ , Fern thought. _Hopefully that’s going to be the last knighting I’ll be doing for a while._

But as he spoke, he noticed how somewhere lost in the depths of his mind, there really was some faint memory guiding his words. »Then having sworn these solemn oaths, I, Fernando Alexander Fleming, King of Tristadtia, shall dub you with my sword, Eagleheart, and by all that you hold sacred, true, and holy. Once for honor, twice for duty, thrice for chivalry.« He placed the flat side of his sword’s blade on Fern’s shoulders and head, respectively. And, just for the sake of it, and because it would not feel complete otherwise, he concluded, becoming louder one final time: »Arise, Sir Ferb, Knight of Danville.«

And the boy did, accompanied by the cheers of the audience. Phineas was the most prominent voice, of course, with Buford being a close second. Melody would undoubtedly have cheered as well, but she was too busy weeping with joy - after all, she had been the one to give Ferb the name of Arthur in the first place. She was the reason this very moment was so important to him that he, too, shed more than one tear of happy disbelief.

And Fern smiled as well, knowing that he had just made his friend’s day, or most likely more than that, just like he had made Buford, Izzy, and all the others indescribably happy.

But wait, there was one person left. Still standing behind Fern and near the wall, careful not to draw any attention to himself, looking quite abandoned and, most of all, uncomfortable.

»Bal.«

The boy seemed genuinely surprised at the mention of his name, as if he had already come to terms with having been forgotten. While Ferb sat down with his sword at his feet and being celebrated by his family and friends, Bal took his place in front of Fern, wary as ever.

»Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you. The only reason you are last is because I have the most things to say to you.«

Bal widened his eyes, his expression shocked. He didn’t think too highly of himself, Fern knew that all too well.

»Some of you might know this boy as Balavan Tinley«, Fern began, ignoring his friend and talking to the audience instead. »The boy responsible for the destruction of an entire village. And not only that, he did it willingly, giving up his family and every other citizen for the sake of saving the life of one unimportant boy. All of that is true, and he would undoubtedly do it again.« He knew that not only people from Bal’s old village were present right now, but also his parents, nodding at Fern’s words with stern faces. _Bal’s probably the only person in this room hating their parents as much as I do._ And he could hear hushed voices now, talking badly about Bal, for they felt affirmed by the king’s words.

Bal, facing Fern with his back to the audience, flinched at every hurtful word reaching his ears, and he was on the verge of tearing up. Talking like this about his longtime friend pained Fern as much as Bal himself, and yet there was no lie in his words, they both knew that. But there was a reason for Fern’s harsh words - a reason he unveiled now.

»But when he joined the resistance, he proved every single day that he was willing to put all of this, all his previous mistakes, behind - just like many of you I have met over the years, I'm sure. He's been running from his past as much as I did, and maybe more of you as well, and just like me, he's done his very best to prove that these past actions do not define him, that he has many qualities I more than merely respect him for. He would give up his own life just to save mine or that of someone he loves, and you might call that stupid, but he's saved my life far more often than I did such a thing for him, and I am very lucky to call him one of the people I will forever and always trust the most. I'm not saying that you are wrong for blaming him for all that has happened back then, quite the contrary, but you are most definitely wrong for believing he is a lawless, ruthless, self-centered villain - for without him, we would never have gotten this far on our journey, and we would have never been able to save all of you.«

And since he had only talked to the audience up to now, Fern turned to his friend, genuinely smiling at him like Bal had only ever known it from Bue.

»I know you're thinking you don't deserve any of the things I just said... but you do. All of it is true, Bal - I don't know what I would have done without you in all those years. You are my best and most loyal, most trustworthy friend, someone I can always count on in times of trouble to provide me with both a rational point of view and the best archery skills I have ever seen in my life. And I know you don't hear this enough, from anyone, but... thank you, Bal. For everything. If it means anything to you: I'm proud of you.«

It was Bue who started shouting his best friend’s name now, and many others joined in. Even Jared and Colin, who had never considered Bal a great companion, took part in the celebration of the boy that deserved far more than he thought he did.

And Bal… he was just standing there, trembling once again, and tearing up indeed - not out of sadness, but out of joy. He could not believe what was happening, could not fathom the thought of the people cheering for him at all, but it was true.

»That’s your applause, Bal.« Fern looked his friend into the watery eyes. »Yours alone.«

Bal nodded, still trying to process the situation. His eyes trailed to one of the room’s exits, and Fern approved with a nod. This was all too much for his friend to take.

And so, Bal left the throne room, still in tears - but his friends let him.

»Well, time for the after show party, isn’t it«, Fern decided, louder than he had wanted to be. His proposal was well-received, probably with the most enthusiastic cheers he had heard that day, and he discarded actually concluding his speeches. Instead, he shrugged it off - he felt exhausted after the event as well, and he could use some relaxation. So he gave the sign for bringing in the long-anticipated buffet, which actually caused Buford to squeal in excitement. Fern snorted at that and found himself hungry as well.

Fern was still not fond of acting like a distant and noble king, so he quickly let his crown disappear in some inner pocket of his beloved jacket and joined his friends at long last.

»Isn’t it great how everyone got exactly what they wanted?«, Buford asked his group of friends just as he was filling his stomach with some roasted meat. He was eating with one hand, still careful not to damage the letter he had received in any way.

»It is indeed«, Baljeet nodded, frowning as he was racking his brains about who knew what.

»What’s wrong?«, Phineas asked. Fern had not been the only one to notice Baljeet’s expression.

The Indian boy sighed. »It is just that it feels like something is missing, but I cannot wrap my mind around what it is.«

They all pondered about that for a moment, and it was Bue who figured it out. »A song?«

Yes, that was right, Fern agreed. Phineas had told them in the beginning of their journey how much he loved singing, and with the two songs Fern had heard from his friends by now, he felt like another one would be a great way to round off the festivity.

»Can we help?« Fern did not recognize the voice, and neither the person behind it: a tall man with long brown hair who was accompanied by a bald one and one with gray-brown hair. The latter had a quite apathetic stare that was focused on Fern in particular, while the man that had spoken up gave Ferb a high-five. They were all carrying medieval instruments, too.

»Who is that?«, Baljeet asked, and it was Can who told him.

»Some guys that helped us find Josh«, she explained, her eyes resting on the bald man. »Denton, Robbie, and Sheldon.«

 _I rode on him_ , Fern realized as he returned Sheldon's stare. _I knew this would be incredibly awkward someday._

»We're a little out of practice, but we're still musicians!«, Denton continued.

But Phineas shook his head, even though he must have recognized who these men were in his dimension. »That's nice of you, guys, but it's time to bring some technology into this place.« He smiled at Ferb as they revealed two instruments: electric guitars, he said, leaving the Tristadtians quite amazed by this modern invention. Not to mention by how the boys had been able to store these two instruments in the first place. »Would you do us the honor, Your Majesty?«, Phineas grinned.

»What?« They couldn’t possibly want him to…

»You know, sing for us.«

»No!«, Fern immediately replied. »You’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t sing. Not at all.«

»I’ve never heard you sing«, Can pointed out. »And I refuse to believe that you’re telling the truth.«

Buford agreed as well, teasing his friend. »You only need to sound half as great as the other You to absolutely rock this place.«

Ferb blushed at that, but nodded.

There was no way around it, it seemed. They all wanted to hear him sing. But there was one last chance to get out of this. »Well, I’ve got nothing prepared. There’s no way I can just improvise an entire song. Sorry, guys.«

But Phineas waved his hand dismissively. »Nah, we’re doing that all the time. Now come on!«

And so, Buford shoved Fern back to where he had stood before, and Ferb handed him the pocket knife he recognized from their journey. This time, though, it had been turned into a device Fern had not seen before.

»That’s a microphone«, Phineas explained as he and Ferb took position on the right and left side of Fern, respectively. »Sing into it, it adds to the atmosphere.« It was then that Fern noticed two boxes beside the boys, but Phineas just gave him a sign to begin.

Fern cleared his throat, and the sound echoed from the two boxes behind him. It made everyone in the room turn their heads, and now there really was no way around it. He had everyone’s attention.

Phineas and Ferb started playing their guitars that were plugged into the boxes as well, and the sound was amplified once again. It was a nice, slow beat, easy for Fern to get into. His words were more talking than actually singing, for he still had absolutely no idea how to do this.

 

_»Have you ever been so far below_

_You could only see light using a telescope?_

_Point it up to the sky and wonder why does hope_

_Feel so far but look so close.«_

 

Phineas was right. The words came right out of him without him having to think much about them. They were coming from his heart, memories of the journey they had embarked on together. And most of all, his own personal journey.

 

_»Will you wander with me to the edge?_

_Take a breath, tell the world that we're not finished_ _yet._

_Cast a net to the stars and see if we can get_

_Closer to the light at the end.«_

 

Having heard the music, both Bal and Izzy had reappeared from outside the room, and Fern looked at both of them as he sang these words. They were dedicated to them more than to anyone else - other than Can, of course, but she was already aware of that. The two near the exit, however, were always quick to forget his message.

 

_»Let our eyes show the fire in our hearts tonight,_

_Yeah, our eyes show the fire in our hearts tonight._

_Let our eyes show the fire in our hearts tonight,_

‘ _Cause you can’t stop the fire, you can’t stop the fire.«_

 

That was the chorus, Fern realized, and it was meant for everyone. The future was coming, and it was coming for them all.

 

_»Maybe I’m crazy, yeah, a little naive,_

_But the light at the end is brighter than it used to be._

_Got a long way to go, but I know, I believe_

_That the light at the end is brighter than it used to be.«_

 

As he was singing, Fern had to admit that it wasn’t all that bad. Quite the contrary, really - he was more than just enjoying it, and Phineas and Ferb were doing some quite amazing musical accompaniment.

 

_»You don't have to hide, you know we've all got scars._

_The broken we were becoming who we are._

_The proof that it doesn't matter how we start –_

_We can be more than a spark.«_

 

Most of all, this song made him remember how _he_ had to be brave. How he was in charge of this country now, and how he needed to stay strong. It didn’t matter what people thought him to be - his past, his blood, his _father_ did not define him, it was what he made of his own abilities. He was a natural leader, that much was certain, and why should a king be cold and distant? Fern loved being a part of the adventures he sent his people on, and he would never give that up.

 

_»Let our eyes show the fire in our hearts tonight,_

_Yeah, our eyes show the fire in our hearts tonight._

_Let our eyes show the fire in our hearts tonight_

‘ _Cause you can’t stop the fire, you can’t stop the fire.«_

 

Not even the Duke. No, he had been the one to bring them all together. All his plans had backfired on him, and now they were stronger than ever before.

 

_»Maybe I’m crazy, yeah, a little naive,_

_But the light at the end is brighter than it used to be._

_Got a long way to go, but I know, I believe_

_That the light at the end is brighter than it used to be.«_

 

Fern locked eyes with Phineas as he sang this second chorus. Once he was done, he kept quiet, for it was Phineas’ turn now. The redhead loved singing, so Fern was not going to keep that from him. Not when he had something so important to say.

 

_»There's a thin line between hoping and believing,_

_A thin line between sleeping and dreaming,_

_A thin line between paying dues_

_And losing everything that ever mattered to you._

_Well, this is our time, this is our life,_

_This is our song, this is our night._

_And if the world gives up, we'll carry on,_

_Turn the volume up and we'll sing along!«_

 

Following Phineas’ words, Buford broke into a _»Whoa-oh-oh-oh«_ , something that was soon imitated by Bue, Jared, Colin, and all the other people enjoying the song. Between each repetition of these backup voices, it was Ferb who continued with one line of the song, his deep voice outshining Fern’s completely. At least it sounded like it; there was no way for Fern to sound even half as good as that.

 

_»You've got a home,_

_And you've got a song._

_No, you're not alone,_

_Just sing along._

_Through the ups and downs,_

_When the road gets long,_

_Know you're not alone.«_

 

But outshone voice or not, Fern took over for one last chorus - and judging by the crowd’s singing along and really enjoying the song, he couldn’t sound that bad, could he?

 

_»Maybe I’m crazy, yeah, a little naive,_

_But the light at the end is brighter than it used to be._

_Got a long way to go, but I know, I believe_

_That the light at the end is brighter than it used to be.«_

 

Fern repeated these lines one more time, and by then, he had decided that it didn’t matter whether he sounded great or not. It was the message that counted, and he was certain he had made it clear to everyone.

The music died away, and just as it was gone, Ferb, as usual, had the last word:

 

_»Got a long way to go, but I know, I believe_

_That the light at the end is brighter than it used to be.«_

 

And deep in his heart, Fern knew that his friend was right.

 


	23. Apparition [Epilogue]

She was about to go to bed when it happened.

A loud noise cut through the quiet evening air. Crying.

Her little brother.

He was only two; keeping the entire castle awake at night was nothing unusual.

But when he didn’t stop for several minutes, she decid­ed to look after him. Why hadn’t a handmaid tended to him by now? Or his mother?

Something was wrong. Incredibly wrong.

Instinctively, she reached for her staff, the weapon she enjoyed practicing with even though her mother, the Queen, didn’t approve of that at all. Unlike her father - King John loved a good adventure and the rebellious spirit of his daughter. And she, in turn, was fully con­vinced that he was the best dad in the entire world. _At least someone to have fun with… I can’t wait until Finn’s old enough for our stuff._

With her staff in hand, she scurried through the castle’s dark hallways. She didn’t need a candle; she knew the entire place by heart, including all the secret passages leading all the way through the whole mountain.

The place was completely deserted, which was odd… hadn’t anyone heard Finn crying? This was getting stranger with every step she took, and scarier as well. His voice was getting louder the closer she came to his room, and after the one turn that was between their two rooms, she noticed that the door to his one was open and that someone had turned the light on in there - or not off, whichever was the case.

There was another noise that added to her crying broth­er now: the clash of metal against metal - and as she peeked past the door frame, she saw her father, dressed in his nightwear. Fighting a man in a dark robe whose cack­le sent shivers down her spine.

She let out a scream when the stranger came danger­ously close to seriously injuring her father, and surprised by the noise, King John turned to her, panic in his face. _Get out of here_ , his eyes urged her.

The stranger cackled again just as the king turned his head, and she realized her mistake as well: for one sec­ond, her father was distracted. But this second was one second too long.

»Long live the King«, the stranger announced in a high, raspy, and utterly terrifying voice.

His sword went right through her father’s chest, and as he fell, the king’s face became younger - until it wasn’t King John anymore, but Finn.

The stranger turned his grinning face to the girl, and he wasn’t a stranger anymore either.

It was Fern.

 

 

Can awoke with a start. Drenched in sweat and with her heart racing, she sat up. The girl breathed deeply in an attempt to calm herself.

»Just a dream«, she reminded herself. But she knew that wasn’t true. She had been having this nightmare for years - of course, the final seconds had only been appear­ing like this ever since Fern had killed Finn, but still. Ev­erything prior to that was real; not a dream, but a _memo­ry._

Which made it even harder for her to go back to sleep.

Wide awake as she was, there was no point in even at­tempting that, so she got up instead.

Minutes later, Can found herself wandering through the same hallways she had passed in her dream, with one change: this time, there was no crying. But she was not heading for her brother’s room - in fact, she had no idea where she was going. Still, she confidently made her way through the darkness without any candle to guide her, and she only knew her destination once she was there.

The memorial, and grave, of her father and brother.

With a pain in her chest and her memories haunting her, Can sat down on the bench next to the statues of her relatives. There was not much space for her, but enough.

The stars were still shining in the sky in front of her, but fading already. In less than an hour, they would be gone completely, outshone by the dawning sun. She could very well stay here for a while.

It only took seconds for Can to break the silence en­gulfing the place.

»I’m sorry«, she whispered, allowing herself to weep since nobody was around to see her. »I should have saved you. Both of you.«

_»It wasn’t your destiny.«_

_»Or ours.«_

Can froze and turned her head to the two statues next to her. Was she still dreaming? No, the stone was as lifeless as ever… but she _had_ heard their voices, as clearly as if the statues had actually spoken to her.

»Finn?«, she asked, still baffled. »Dad?« She eyed the statues, knowing how ridiculous it was. After all, rocks couldn’t talk.

_»That’s us.«_ The voice of her little brother was so clear, so _real_ , that Can refused to believe she was still dreaming.

She cracked a forced smile. »You sound… happy.« Was he really? After all, he was… dead.

Although his statue didn’t move, Finn’s voice ex­pressed his frustration. He knew what she was think­ing. _»Even though I’m dead? Yeah… but it’s not because the time I spent with you wasn’t great. No, that one day I was with all of you was the best day of my life… thanks for everything, really!«_

And she felt sad all over again. »That’s why I should have saved you.«

_»Sometimes we have to leave to make way for some­thing new.«_ That was her father, King John, as cheerful yet wise as he had always been. The best king, and the best dad, in the world.

»What?« He made it sound like he and his son had _wanted_ to die.

_»Of course, neither of us knew that we would die that day«_ , the man agreed. _»But in the end, my death changed the lives of so many people… a lot of suffering came from it, yes, but take yourself, for example. You’d have stayed in the castle and yes, maybe you would still have married Fern…«_

»...but I’d never have met the others«, Can realized. »None of them.«

_»And I died a hero«_ , Finn added with a hint of melan­choly. _»I miss all of you, I really do! But I just wasn’t supposed to stay.«_

»Just like it was Fern’s destiny to become king?«, Can asked, and her father confirmed that.

_»Having this much power is hard, I know. You and your friends, you have to be there for him, especially now. Help him as much as you can. He has tough deci­sions to make.«_

_»Tell him to come here if he ever needs to talk to one of us«_ , Finn said. _»Maybe he... needs to talk things out.«_

Can knew all too well what he meant by that. »I’ll let him know.«

_»The same goes for you«_ , King John reminded his daughter. _»We’ll always be right here.«_

Just then, she started feeling a strange kind of warmth right where her heart was; and still in tears, she nodded. »Always.«

Her father and brother did not say anything afterward, but Can could still feel their presence. Knowing them to be beside her comforted her, and so, she kept silent as well, watching as dawn set in.

There was not a single cloud in the sky that was still in a shade of golden red at this early hour. The first birds were filling the air with their music, and the morning sun arose and bathed the country of Tristadtia in a warm light. It was a great country, marked by long years of tyranny, now led by a young king and his allies. But would they bring it back to its former glory?

For Can, there was only one answer.

Yes.

Yes, they would.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! That's the end of this fic. To those of you having read all the way to this point, thanks a lot! You guys are the best. If there's anything you wanna tell me [or questions you have regarding this story, considering there's not gonna be a sequel and stuff], say it in the comments section! :D


	24. AN: A little PSA

It's been about nine months since I finished this story, but I haven't stopped thinking about these guys, quite the contrary. Lately, I've been strangely inspired to fill some gaps regarding everything that happened before, during, or after Brothers.  
For this purpose, a new collection of Brothers-related one-shots exists [right here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8330518/chapters/19080454). It will be updated whenever I feel like it, and if you have some suggestions on what scenes you want to see in their full glory, do let me know!

~

One-shots so far:

  1. [The Room Where It Happens](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8330518/chapters/19080454) - The conversation between Ferb and Fern during the final chapters that had only been mentioned in the actual story.
  2. [Where It Leaves Us](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8330518/chapters/19217593) - After Fern's coronation and his incredibly moving speech to Bal, the two of them do some stargazing together.
  3. [An Improbable Reunion](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8330518/chapters/22031243) \- Buford's quest to make the day his dad is released from prison their best day ever.
  4. [All of My Failures](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8330518/chapters/22438760) \- Josh decides to visit Phineas in the hospital, regardless of the emotional distress it brings him.
  5. [Spilling Royal Blood](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8330518/chapters/22834310) \- Finn attempts to process the recent events and comes up with a plan that he's sure is best for everyone involved.
  6. [Promise Keeper](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8330518/chapters/22981749) \- The night he kills the king, Hans Doonkleberg makes a promise. A promise he never thought could be this hard to keep.
  7. [Fixing What's Broken](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8330518/chapters/26691927) \- In the aftermath of the Duke's defeat, Bue does his best to keep his group from falling apart.




End file.
